good news for american pot smokers

  Quote

To friends and supporters of Prop 215 -

Cal NORML is delighted to hear that the White House has affirmed its

intent to end the DEA's medical marijuana raids in California.

Thanks to our many supporters who have bombarded the White House with

phone calls, FAXes and e-mails in the past two weeks.

http://www.canorml.org/news/obamaraids.html. Coming weeks will show

whether the White House is willing to put its money where its mouth

is, but this is the most hopeful development in federal marijuana

policy since the passage of Prop. 215 (or before).

- D. Gieringer, Cal NORML - co-sponsor, Prop. 215

 

The White House said it expects those kinds of raids to end once Mr.

Obama nominates someone to take charge of DEA, which is still run by

Bush administration holdovers.

 

"The president believes that federal resources should not be used to

circumvent state laws, and as he continues to appoint senior

leadership to fill out the ranks of the federal government, he

expects them to review their policies with that in mind," White House

spokesman Nick Shapiro said.

 

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/f...nues-pot-raids/

 

DEA continues pot raids Obama opposes

 

President vowed to end policy

 

Stephen Dinan and Ben Conery THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Thursday, February 5, 2009

 

Drug Enforcement Administration agents this week raided four medical

marijuana shops in California, contrary to President Obama's campaign

promises to stop the raids.

 

DEA Acting Administrator Michele Leonhart

 

The White House said it expects those kinds of raids to end once Mr.

Obama nominates someone to take charge of DEA, which is still run by

Bush administration holdovers.

 

"The president believes that federal resources should not be used to

circumvent state laws, and as he continues to appoint senior

leadership to fill out the ranks of the federal government, he

expects them to review their policies with that in mind," White House

spokesman Nick Shapiro said.

 

Medical use of marijuana is legal under the law in California and a

dozen other states, but the federal government under President Bush,

bolstered by a 2005 Supreme Court ruling, argued that federal

interests trumped state law.

 

Dogged by marijuana advocates throughout the campaign, Mr. Obama

repeatedly said he was opposed to using the federal government to

raid medical marijuana shops, particularly because it was an

infringement on states' decisions.

 

"I'm not going to be using Justice Department resources to try to

circumvent state laws on this issue," Mr. Obama told the Mail Tribune

newspaper in Oregon in March, during the Democratic primary campaign.

 

He told the newspaper the "basic concept of using medical marijuana

for the same purposes and with the same controls as other drugs

prescribed by doctors, I think that's entirely appropriate."

 

Mr. Obama is still filling key law enforcement posts. For now, DEA is

run by acting Administrator Michele Leonhart, a Bush appointee.

 

Special Agent Sarah Pullen of the DEA's Los Angeles office said

agents raided four marijuana dispensaries about noon Tuesday. Two

were in Venice and one each was in Marina Del Rey and Playa Del Ray

-- all in the Los Angeles area.

 

A man who answered the phone at Marina Caregivers in Marina Del Rey

said his shop was the target of a raid but declined to elaborate,

saying the shop was just trying to get back to operating.

 

Agent Pullen said the four raids seized $10,000 in cash and 224

kilograms of marijuana and marijuana-laced food, such as cookies. No

one was arrested, she said, but the raid is part of an ongoing

investigation seeking to trace the marijuana back to its suppliers or

source.

 

She said agents have conducted 30 or 40 similar raids in the past

several years, many of which resulted in prosecutions.

 

"It's clear that the DEA is showing no respect for President Obama's

campaign promises," said Dan Bernath, a spokesman for the Marijuana

Policy Project in Washington, which advocates for medical marijuana

and for decriminalizing the drug.

 

California allows patients whose doctors prescribe marijuana to use

the drug. The state has set up a registry to allow patients to obtain

cards allowing them to possess, grow, transport and use marijuana.

 

Kris Hermes of Americans for Safe Access, a medical marijuana

advocacy group in California, called the raids an attempt to

undermine state law and said they were apparently conducted without

the knowledge of Los Angeles city or police officials.

 

He said the DEA has raided five medical marijuana dispensaries in the

state since Mr. Obama was inaugurated and that the first took place

on Jan. 22 in South Lake Tahoe.

 

"President Obama needs to keep a promise he made, not just in one

campaign stop, but in multiple speeches that he would not be spending

Justice Department funds on these kinds of raids," Mr. Hermes said.

"We do want to give him a little bit of leeway, but at the same time

we're expecting him to stop this egregious enforcement policy that is

continuing into his presidency."

 

He said he is aware that Mr. Obama has not installed his own DEA

chief but that new Attorney General "Eric Holder can still suspend

these types of operations."

 

The Justice Department referred questions to the White House.

tl;dr

summary please

the whitehouse has made an official announcement that they intend to stop the DEA from not respecting state laws relating to medical marijuana

in other words if they stick to their word, no more federal government raids on california or any other state pot clubs/stores

For non drug addict reasons this could do great things for the california economy

how ironic that the news comes too late for Theo.

*pours out 40 oz, unrolls blunt and spills contents*

  lumpenprol said:

how ironic that the news comes too late for Theo.

 

 

*pours out 40 oz, unrolls blunt and spills contents*

i know i was just thinking of him as i posted it

I'd wager this is as far as obama is willing to go towards federal decriminalization or legalization.

How about we get rid of those FEMA camps now, eh?

  Al Hounos said:

I'd wager this is as far as obama is willing to go towards federal decriminalization or legalization.

if it is and he holds his word it's still a huge development. fear of arrest is/was one of the only things holding back thousands of new businesses from springing up in what's now ~15 states that allow the use of marijuana for medical purposes.

i would love to smoke with obama

Special Agent Sarah Pullen

hah

that's cool for america. sucks for england though. my friends and I used to walk through the centre of town or sit down in a really public place and smoke spliff after spliff.... we were teenagers and stupid, but we never got caught. i would never do that today. i'd just get paranoid thinking about how much society hates me, then i'd implode. *pop*

I forget that it's illegal a lot of the time. I know so many people that smoke weed on a regular basis.

new press about it -

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?.../BAKB15OF6J.DTL

http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter/12557...raids_continue/

and ...

Click here and tell US Attorney General Eric Holder to uphold the will of the President and the public. It’s time for the DEA to stop circumventing state medical marijuana laws. It’s time for the raids to come to an end.

  Braintree said:

I forget that it's illegal a lot of the time. I know so many people that smoke weed on a regular basis.

qft.

What happened to Theo?

oh jesus...