By Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
California -- When federal prosecutors in California announced a crackdown on medical marijuana dispensaries last fall, pot suppliers and their advocates claimed in a series of lawsuits that the Obama administration broke a promise to leave them alone if they complied with state law.
The suits have gotten a chilly reception in court, and now a federal judge in Sacramento has become the first to dismiss one of them, saying the Justice Department remains free to enforce federal drug laws.
Tuesday's ruling allows federal prosecutors to continue a campaign that has shut down a number of dispensaries in California, including the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana in Fairfax and several in San Francisco. A lawyer for a Sacramento collective and one of its patients said they would appeal.
The suits were filed in November by marijuana suppliers and patients in each of the state's four federal judicial districts. They relied on the Justice Department's October 2009 memo to federal prosecutors that said they should concentrate on drug trafficking networks, and "should not focus federal resources" on individuals who followed their state's medical marijuana law.
The memo followed President Obama's 2008 campaign pledge to let states set their own medical marijuana policies. Shortly after the department released the document, Santa Cruz County agreed to dismiss a suit challenging the government's authority to raid locally approved pot collectives like one that federal agents had invaded in the city of Santa Cruz.
But U.S. District Judge Garland Burrell of Sacramento said Tuesday the Justice Department memo was a statement of priorities, not a binding commitment, and did not exempt dispensaries from the federal laws against marijuana cultivation and distribution.
The memo "does not contain a promise not to enforce" federal law, and the department made no such pledges in the Santa Cruz case, Burrell said. He also said the Supreme Court and a federal appeals court have rejected arguments that seriously ill patients have a constitutional right to use marijuana with a doctor's approval.
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Complete Article: http://drugsense.org/url/SgwBhJc9
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Author: Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
Published: Thursday, March 1, 2012
Copyright: 2012 San Francisco Chronicle
Contact: letters@sfchronicle.com
Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Last Updated on Friday, 02 March 2012 13:17.
