CALIFORNIA: A MEDICAL MARIJUANA DEFENDER

The San Francisco district attorney, Terence Hallinan, asked the federal
Drug Enforcement Administration to stop cracking down on dispensers of
marijuana for medical use. Mr. Hallinan, the only district attorney in
California who actively campaigned for the voter initiative that legalized
such marijuana, said that in recent weeks, two San Francisco dispensaries
had been under surveillance by unidentified agents and patients' records
had been seized from a doctor's office in El Dorado County and from the
largest cannabis dispensary in Los Angeles, which was forced to close.
Evelyn Nieves (NYT)