In California, It’s U.S. vs. State Over Marijuana [View all]

[RainDog]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/14/us/14pot.html?hp&_r=1&

Matthew Davis has an MBA. He decided to start a business in an emerging market - medical marijuana cultivation. He paid his taxes, his staff, he got his permits. Yet the U.S. Justice Dept. indicated Mr. Davis 6 months ago for cultivating marijuana.

The United States attorney for the Eastern District of California, Benjamin B. Wagner, a 2009 Obama appointee, wants Mr. Davies to agree to a plea that includes a mandatory minimum of five years in prison, calling the case a straightforward prosecution of “one of the most significant commercial marijuana traffickers to be prosecuted in this district.”

At the center of this federal-state collision is a round-faced 34-year-old father of two young girls. Displaying a sheaf of legal documents, Mr. Davies, who has no criminal record, insisted in an interview that he had meticulously followed California law in setting up a business in 2009 that generated $8 million in annual revenues. By all appearances, Mr. Davies’ dispensaries operated as openly as the local Krispy Kreme, albeit on decidedly more tremulous legal ground.

“This is not a case of an illicit drug ring under the guise of medical marijuana,” Mr. Peters wrote. “Here, marijuana was provided to qualified adult patients with a medical recommendation from a licensed physician. Records were kept, proceeds were tracked, payroll and sales taxes were duly paid.”

The case illustrates the struggle states and the federal government are now facing as they seek to deal with the changing contours of marijuana laws and public attitudes toward the drug. Colorado and Washington legalized marijuana for recreational use last year, and are among the 18 states, and the District of Columbia, that currently allow its medical use.

For anyone who wants to claim the current Democratic administration has only gone after those who were not in compliance with CA law over the last 5 years - well, you're wrong. or you're lying.

How anyone can enact such clearly biased application of the law... well, it reminds me of Adam Swartz and the recent observation that judicial overreach can be a bad thing.

In this case, I have to wonder how a man who thanked his pot dealer in his high school senior class note can turn around and go after people who are legally operating within state law.

Obama knows the war on marijuana is a lie. He needs to get on the right side of this issue and stop pandering to the anti-science goon squad that fears their jobs will be in danger if they have to focus on real criminals - like the drug cartels that were laundering money through those banks that got a slap on the hand.

IT IS TIME TO SET THIS RIGHT.

No more prosecution of ANYONE for marijuana-related charges.

Decriminalize at the federal level and remove marijuana from the drug schedule. That's the right thing to do.