Constitutional Law

Federal Government Leaving Marijuana Jurisdiction to States

On the campaign trail, then-Sen. Barack Obama said that states should be allowed to make their own rules on medical marijuana. Now, his Attorney General is having to answer questions about that promise.

During his historic campaign for the White House, Obama recalled his mother's death by cancer and compared medicinal marijuana to doctor-prescribed morphine. He stated that it was 'entirely appropriate' for states to legalize medical marijuana 'with the same controls as other drugs prescribed by doctors.'

'What the president said during the campaign, you'll be surprised to know, will be consistent with what we'll be doing here in law enforcement,' Eric Holder recently told reporters. 'What he said during the campaign is now American policy.'

The reassurances are being warmly welcomed by medical marijuana advocates. Under the Bush administration, the Drug Enforcement Agency carried out several raids against medical marijuana dispensaries in California, which legalized the drug for medicinal purposes in 1996.

However, California's permissive approach to medicinal marijuana remains controversial in some localities. The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that the county of San Diego is challenging the state law in federal court.

Full post as published by ACS Blog on March 03, 2009 (boomark / email).