The Obama administration
is facing criticism over its attempt to straddle the federal law that
makes marijuana illegal and state laws that permit recreational use of
the drug.In the first
congressional hearing since the administration announced a new,
permissive enforcement policy, law enforcement and drug-prevention
groups and their congressional allies see an opportunity to push back.
The administration's Aug. 29 announcement allows the two states where
recreational marijuana use has been legalized — Colorado and Washington —
to go their own way without federal interference as long as they
implement strong enforcement systems."We are at a precipice,"
said Kevin Sabet of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, a drug prevention
group. "We're about to create Big Marijuana by allowing the commercial
production, retail sales and mass advertising of this drug similarly to
how we have had Big Tobacco for the last hundred years."The lead witness at
Tuesday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing was to be Deputy Attorney
General James Cole, who signed the guidance putting the new marijuana
enforcement standards in place.Committee Chairman
Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who spent eight years as a prosecutor early in his
career, says the Justice Department should focus on prosecuting violent
crime and should respect the votes in Colorado and Washington to
legalize small amounts of marijuana for personal and medical use.
Iowa Sen. Chuck
Grassley, the committee's top Republican and co-chairman of the Senate
Caucus on International Narcotics Control, says Attorney General Eric
Holder's action was "the wrong message to both law enforcement and
violators of federal law.""When marijuana will be
fully legal to buy, diversion of the drug will explode," nine former
Drug Enforcement Administration chiefs said in a letter to Holder.With the door to legalization open in two states, others could follow.The 20,000-member
Marijuana Policy Project says it will support efforts to end marijuana
prohibition in 10 more states by 2017. Voters in Oregon and Alaska could
consider marijuana legalization measures next year.At the federal level,
legislation on financial institutions and marijuana is pending in the
House, but not in the Senate. Legalization supporters hope the hearing
"will be a springboard" for Senate action, said Bill Piper, director of
national affairs at the Drug Policy Alliance, which was pleased by the
federal government's new stance.A bill sponsored by Rep.
Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., would exempt from the federal marijuana ban
anyone complying with state laws that allow production, possession and
delivery of marijuana.
Another measure,
sponsored by Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo., would allow financial
institutions to provide services to legitimate marijuana-related
businesses. Currently, processing transactions or investments with money
from marijuana sales puts federally insured banks at risk of drug
racketeering charges.Banking long has been an
issue in states which have laws permitting medical use of marijuana. In
1996, California voters made their state the first to allow medical
use, and 19 more states and the District of Columbia have enacted
similar laws.Other scheduled
witnesses at Tuesday's hearing were John Urquhart, the sheriff in King
County, Wash., and Jack Finlaw, chief legal counsel to Colorado Gov.
John W. Hickenlooper.Urquhart, a former
narcotics detective, says marijuana prohibition is costly and
ineffective and says it's important to send a message to the federal
government that it should no longer categorize marijuana as an illegal
drug in the same category as heroin and LSD.
Finlaw works for a
governor who opposed legalization but didn't campaign vigorously against
it. In May, Hickenlooper signed legislation governing how recreational
marijuana should be grown, sold and taxed, calling it the state's best
attempt to navigate the uncharted territory of legalized recreational
pot.
Source:ABC News
Source:ABC News
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