DEA Says it Has a Policy of Not Arresting Medical Marijuana Patients

[Jim Finnel]

Months ago, Judiciary Committee chairman John Conyers (D-MI) sent a pointed inquiry to the DEA demanding an accounting of the costs and methodology behind the federal raids against medical marijuana dispensaries in California. DEA’s response (pdf) recently became available and contains some interesting information, including this:
DEA does not investigate or target individual "patients" who use cannabis, but instead the Drug Trafficking Organizations (DTOs) involved in marijuana trafficking.

"Again, the agency does not target individual users who are
engaged in "simple possession" of the drug - even though they too are violating federal law and entitled to no immunity."

It’s not really news that DEA avoids arresting patients, but it’s remarkable to see it in writing. This serves to remind us that DEA in fact bears no legal obligation whatsoever to enforce federal marijuana laws in states that have approved medical use. The organization’s enforcement priorities with regards to medical marijuana are shaped by politics, not a sense of legal obligation, thus patients have been quietly left off the battlefield in recognition of the obscene PR fiasco that would result if they were visibly targeted. Keep this in mind if Obama’s pledge to end medical marijuana raids is met with resistance from anyone who claims that "federal law must be enforced."

DEA’s concession also helps to illuminate the complete incoherence of any argument that state-level marijuana reforms are rendered impotent in the face of incongruous federal drug laws. Such reforms have enormous practical value by dramatically reducing the threat of arrest and conviction under state laws, which have always been the only real threat facing individual users.


Thanks to Soniq420 for submitting this article

This acknowledgment should end debate over the importance of state-level marijuana reform.Stopdrugwar citing
News Hawk: User: 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: StoptheDrugWar.org
Copyright: 2008 StoptheDrugWar.org
Contact: drcnet@drcnet.org
Website: DEA Says it Has a Policy of Not Arresting Medical Marijuana Patients | Stop the Drug War (DRCNet)

 

[McBudz]

This is great.

 

[Keith Lake]

Sure is great to see this in writing

Makes you wonder; who sets the DEAs policy.

If the DEA head decides to choose not to arrest or pursue MM cases against patients, he certainly can choose to start respecting the modest distribution tolerated under CA state laws.

It feels like the tide is starting to turn

 

[Dr. 215]

It feels like the tide is starting to turn

We can only hope, we can only hope.

 

[420]

this is good to hear...
earlier this year they were still harassing patients outside of co-ops...
it warms my soul to know they have given up on the patients...
it's just a matter of time before they give up on the rest of our industry...
we must remain focused until this war on our plant has finally been won!

 

[michaelkaer]

Let me get this straight. The DEA says they have a "policy" of not going after the patients but they are more than willing to disrupt their lives by busting the compassion clubs? Where is the logic in that? I thought leave them alone means leave them alone! Obama can easily amend his little note to the DEA to back off o the compassion clubs too. Lets get there!

 

[StuntmanMike]

Let me get this straight. The DEA says they have a "policy" of not going after the patients but they are more than willing to disrupt their lives by busting the compassion clubs? Where is the logic in that? I thought leave them alone means leave them alone! Obama can easily amend his little note to the DEA to back off o the compassion clubs too. Lets get there!

I'd rather be without MMJ and a free man, than to have the feds bust me for being a lowly user. Sucks for the club owners, but it was a risk they accepted when they got into the business

and technically, the President is supposed to "faithfully execute the laws of the land," but as we've seen with Bush apparently that explicit oath he's taken doesn't mean much...The best course is not to simply ignore the laws on the books, but rather change the laws for good.

 

[alapoet]

The DEA says it avoids busting patients to avoid the PR fiasco that would undoubtedly ensue if they did...

BUT. Whenever they want to arrest a medical marijuana patient or provider, all they do is just reclassify them as a "major drug trafficker" and go ahead and bust them anyway.

I've seen them use that exact mode of operation here in Washington, where medical pot has been legal for 10 years.