by PETE YOST and GENE JOHNSON / Associated Press
Posted on August 29, 2013 at 10:42 AM
Updated today at 5:15 PM
WASHINGTON
-- Despite 75 years of federal marijuana prohibition, the Justice
Department said Thursday that states can let people use the drug,
license people to grow it and even allow adults to stroll into stores
and buy it -- as long as the weed is kept away from kids, the black
market and federal property.
In a sweeping new policy statement
prompted by pot legalization votes in Washington and Colorado last fall,
the department gave the green light to states to adopt tight regulatory
schemes to oversee the medical and recreational marijuana industries
burgeoning across the country.
The action, welcomed by supporters
of legalization, could set the stage for more states to legalize
marijuana. Alaska is scheduled to vote on the question next year, and a
few other states plan similar votes in 2016.
The policy change
embraces what Justice Department officials called a "trust but verify"
approach between the federal government and states that enact
recreational drug use.
Document: Read guidance from the Justice Department about Washington's pot law
In
a memo to all 94 U.S. attorneys' offices around the country, Deputy
Attorney General James Cole said the federal government expects that
states and local governments authorizing "marijuana-related conduct"
will implement strong and effective regulatory and enforcement systems
that address the threat those state laws could pose to public health and
safety.
"If state enforcement efforts are not sufficiently robust
... the federal government may seek to challenge the regulatory
structure itself," the memo stated.
The U.S. attorney in Colorado,
John Walsh, said he will continue to focus on whether Colorado's system
has the resources and tools necessary to protect key federal public
safety interests.
Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper said the state
is working to improve education and prevention efforts directed at young
people and on enforcement tools to prevent access to marijuana by those
under age 21. Colorado also is determined to keep marijuana businesses
from being fronts for criminal enterprises or other illegal activity, he
said, and the state is committed to preventing the export of marijuana
while also enhancing efforts to keep state roads safe from impaired
drivers.
Under the policy, the federal government's top
investigative priorities range from preventing the distribution of
marijuana to minors to preventing sales revenue from going to criminal
enterprises, gangs and cartels and preventing the diversion of marijuana
outside of states where it is legal under state law.
Read More Here
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How These 6 People -- And You -- Have Already Been Screwed By Obama's War On State Weed Laws
Attorney General Eric Holder
announced on Thursday
that two states will be allowed to go forward with legalizing
recreational marijuana use, a major move that could reshape the federal
government's policy on pot. Colorado and Washington state forced
Holder's hand when they made all marijuana use legal in November
referendums -- while 20 other states have some sort of medical marijuana
laws on the books -- but every single joint is still illegal under
federal law.
Many marijuana reform advocates are hopeful, but they've had their hopes dashed before.
Before he was elected, President Barack Obama
said he would stop federal raids
on growers operating under state medical marijuana laws. Marijuana
reform advocates were further cheered by a 2009 DOJ memo that said the
government wouldn't use its considerable law enforcement and
prosecutorial resources to target those who complied with state law.
Despite
the friendly words and the welcome memo, the raids rolled on. The Drug
Enforcement Agency and prosecutors claimed they were targeting medical
marijuana growers and dispensary owners operating in violation of state
laws. But because
a Supreme Court ruling
bars marijuana users from using the defense that they are following
state laws, that side never gets heard in court. And even if some
dispensary owners were breaking the law, advocates argue, prison is far
too high a price to pay for a consensual crime.
All along the way,
every year since Obama was inaugurated in 2009, the casualties of the
war on weed have kept piling up: Growers, patients and you, the American
taxpayer.
Jerry Duval
Jerry
Duval was a registered Michigan marijuana patient who lost his family
farm and whose son went to prison after refusing to testify against his
father in the wake of a
federal raid
in 2011. But that wasn't all: Suffering from juvenile diabetes,
glaucoma and neuropathy, he was the recipient of both a kidney and a
pancreas transplant. In 2012 a federal judge recommended he be sent to a
special medical prison, a recommendation the feds
initially ignored.
Eventually, after months of stress for Duval and his family, the feds
caved. Now he is serving out a 10-year sentence at the same medical
prison where the accused Boston bomber is being held, for a term he
estimates will
eventually cost the feds $1.2 million.
Aaron Sandusky
(Photo via YouTube)
Aaron Sandusky of Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., was sentenced earlier this year to 10 years in federal prison for his medical marijuana dispensaries.
While
medical marijuana is legal in California, federal prosecutors painted
Sandusky's business as a "criminal enterprise" that exploited "
his customers' good-faith search for pain relief."
Prior
to his arrest, Sandusky had received a letter from the U.S. Attorney's
Office warning that his stores violated federal law. Sandusky responded
by closing two of them, but the following month, federal agents raided
his remaining dispensary. They seized marijuana plants and $11,500 in
cash, effectively wiping out Sandusky's business.
Richard Flor
Richard
Flor was Montana's first registered medical marijuana caregiver. In
March 2011, he was providing medical marijuana to 300 patients in
accordance with state laws. That's when the feds swooped in, arrested
him, his wife, his son, and everyone else involved in running Montana
Cannabis.
Flor was given five years in federal prison -- five
years that turned out to be a death sentence. Afflicted with dementia
and depression, the 68-year-old's lawyer asked federal U.S. District
Judge Charles Lovell to release his client from a private prison while
they appealed his sentence.
"He is in extreme pain and still is
not being given round-the-clock care as is required for someone with his
medical and mental conditions," his lawyer
wrote. "It is anticipated he will not long survive general population incarceration."
Flor's lawyer was right. Flor died in a Las Vegas just weeks after the judge denied the request.
"I
was sorry to learn of the passing of Mr. Flor," Lovell wrote in a
statement afterward. "Judicial ethics prohibit further response."
Read More Here
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By Jennifer Oldham - Aug 28, 2013 1:01 AM CT
Steve
DeAngelo says his staff may need to carry cash in personal vehicles to
pay Harborside Health Center’s bills after his armored car provider told
his co-founder that a federal agency ordered it to stop serving
cannabis businesses.
“The only way we have to pay our bills is
transporting cash from point A to point B,” said DeAngelo, executive
director of the medicinal marijuana
collective based in Oakland,
California, with 128,000 patients.
Federal
laws bar banks from offering accounts to pot shops, forcing medical
marijuana firms to pay their sales taxes and other bills in cash.
Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
“This includes 15 percent of our $30 million-a-year gross that goes to the cities of
San Jose
and Oakland and the state of California for our taxes,” he said. “This
is a huge threat to the safety of my patients and staff, and beyond that
it’s a huge threat to the general public.”
DeAngelo isn’t alone. Several large marijuana dispensaries in California and
Colorado
received similar notices from their armored vehicle services, said
Steve Fox, director of government relations for the Washington-based
National Cannabis Industry Association.
The U.S.
Justice Department
declined to comment on the matter, Ellen Canale, a spokeswoman, said by
e-mail in response to repeated requests. The U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration referred questions to the Justice Department, its parent
agency.
The end of armored-car service to some marijuana
dispensaries underscores ongoing tension between federal law, under
which cannabis remains illegal, and laws in
20 states and the
District of Columbia that legalized medical marijuana consumption, plus measures in Colorado and
Washington that allow those 21 and older to possess up to an ounce of pot.
Federal Response
Attorney
General Eric Holder hasn’t provided a federal response to the laws in
Washington and Colorado that will also allow retail sales of pot next
year.
The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on
the conflicts between state and federal marijuana laws on Sept. 10,
Chairman
Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat,
announced Aug. 26.
Federal
laws bar banks from offering accounts to pot shops, forcing medical
marijuana firms to pay their sales taxes and other bills in cash.
Cannabis businesses also are unable to obtain credit cards.
DeAngelo’s car service, Dunbar Armored Inc., didn’t return calls and messages for comment.
Fox,
of the cannabis trade group, said that other medical marijuana
dispensaries affected by the issue didn’t want to come forward because
of security concerns.
Read More Here
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Kathryn Johnston
In November 2006, a narcotics team from the
Atlanta
Police Department apprehended a man with a known drug history. They
planted marijuana on him, then threatened to arrest him unless he gave
them information about where they could find a supply of illegal drugs.
He gave them the address of 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston. Instead of
finding an informant to make a controlled buy from the address, the
officer instead lied on the search warrant, inventing an informant and
describing a drug buy that never happened.
Ashley Villarreal
Ashley Villarreal, 14, was shot and killed by DEA agents in 2003 in San Antonio.
Ashley
was attempting to show off her driving skills to family friend David
Robles by taking a drive around the block. But at the time, the DEA was
investigating Ashley's father, Joey Villarreal, for drug trafficking. As
Ashley pulled out of the driveway of the home where Joey Villarreal's
mother and Ashley lived, the federal agents were in the process of
staking out the house.
Later explaining that they had mistaken
Robles for Ashley's father, the agents boxed in the vehicle the girl was
driving. They claimed she then continued driving toward them, at which
point they opened fire, shooting her in the back of the head. Robles and
several witnesses said the agents never identified themselves, and that
Ashley posed no threat, given that her vehicle was already boxed in.
The police found no drugs or weapons in the vehicle, or in the house,
nor did they find any evidence that Ashley's father had been using the
house for drug trafficking.
Nevertheless, the agents were cleared
of any wrongdoing. Joey Villarreal was later arrested, convicted of drug
charges, and sentenced to 19 years in prison.
Source: Pete Brady, "The Murder of Ashley," Cannabis Culture, October 8, 2003.
Johnathan Ayers
In
September 2009, Johnathan Ayers, a 28-year-old Baptist pastor from
Lavonia, Ga., was gunned down by a North Georgia narcotics task force in
the parking lot of a gas station. Police would later acknowledge he was
not using or trafficking in illicit drugs. Instead, Ayers had been
ministering to Johanna Barrett, the actual target of the investigation.
According
to an interview Barrett gave to a North Georgia newspaper shortly after
Ayers' death, on the day he died the pastor had seen her walking near a
gas station on her way back to an extended-stay motel where she lived
with her boyfriend. Ayers had known Barrett for a number of years, and
offered her a ride back to the motel. He also gave her the money in his
pocket, $23, to help pay her rent.
The police were trailing
Barrett at the time. But instead of apprehending her at the motel, they
instead followed Ayers, who they saw hand Ayers cash.
They
followed Ayers to a nearby gas station where he withdrew some money from
an ATM. Shortly after he got back into his car, a black Escalade pulled
up behind him. Three officers, all undercover, rushed Ayers' vehicle
and pointed their guns at him. The pastor panicked and attempted to
escape. As he backed out, Ayers' car grazed one police officer. Officer
Billy Shane Harrison then opened fire, shooting Ayers in the stomach.
Ayers drove for another thousand yards before crashing his car. He died
at the hospital. His last words to his family and medical staff were
that he thought he was being robbed. The police found no illicit drugs
in his car.
A grand jury later declined to indict Harrison for any
crime. District Attorney Brian Rickman praised the Georgia Bureau of
Investigation for going to "very extraordinary lengths" to conduct a
fair investigation. But a civil suit suggested otherwise. The complaint
alleged that Harrison wasn't authorized to arrest him. On the day
Ayerswas killed, Harrison had yet to take the firearms training classes
required for his certification as a police officer. In fact, Harrison
had no training at all in the use of lethal force.
Harrison's lack
of training was later confirmed by local TV station WSB-TV and, after
the fact, by the GBI. Harrison was suspended. The civil suit also
alleged prior disciplinary problems with Harrison and another officer
involved in her husband's death, including alleged drug use.
Sources:
Rob Moore, "Case File: Ayers Feared a Robbery," The Northeast Georgian,
December 29, 2009; Steve Huff, "Did a Good Dead Lead Pastor Jonathan
Ayers to his Death?" September 10, 2009; Jessica Waters, "GBI Findings
Outlined," The Toccoa Record, December 28, 2009; Denise Matthews, "Grand
Jury Declares Ayers Shooting Justified," Franklin County Citizen,
December 24, 2009; Charlie Bauder, "District Attorney Defends
Investigation of Preacher's Death," Anderson Independent-Mail, December
22, 2009; Estate of Jonathan Ayers v. Officer Billy Shane Harrison, et
al., complaint, filed in the United States District Court for the
Northern District of Georgia, March 15, 2010; "Arrest Made in Pastor
Death Case," Actions News 2, WSB-TV Atlanta, June 18, 2010; Rob Moore,
"NCIS Officer on Leave Pending Probe," The Toccoa Record, March 29,
2010; Jessica Waters, "Ayers Federal Civil Case Updated," The Toccoa
Record, January 6, 2011.
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Raids on Legal Dispensaries
Los Angeles Times 3/14/2011
The Huffington Post 7/25/2013
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By John Vibes
