Another tiny step forward.
A 3-page memo spelling out the policy is expected to be sent Monday to federal prosecutors in the 14 states, and also to top officials at the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
The memo, the officials said, emphasizes that prosecutors have wide discretion in choosing which cases to pursue, and says it is not a good use of federal manpower to prosecute those who are without a doubt in compliance with state law.
It’s a positive step, and having a detailed memo is certainly better than some vague statements by the Attorney General (I’ll be interested to see exactly what it says), but based on these preliminary reports, it still amounts to little more than a well meaning, but toothless, suggestion.
You want to make a statement? Tell the DEA and federal prosecutors that medical marijuana cases are completely off-limits in medical marijuana states (strictly state jurisdiction), unless specifically invited in by the state government (and not just local law enforcement). Now that would be a good start.
Update: Glenn Greenwald briefly discusses this and other drug war trends in his post today.
Update 2: It’s interesting that the administration chose to roll this out on a Monday, and even went so far as to advance prep the AP on the story. Rather than dumping it in the trash (ie, when the White House wants to downplay a story, they release it with a bunch of other stuff on Friday afternoon to reduce the coverage), they seem to be promoting it.
This seems to be a positive development — perhaps recognition that not being against medical marijuana is politically savvy? Too soon to tell.
I’m also interested by the fact that all the medical marijuana advocates seem to be trumpeting this heavily as a total victory, even before the text of the memo is released. This could be good strategy, as it may help spin the rest of the media to play it that way. But it also has the potential to lead to disappointment when the next DEA medical marijuana raids happen in California following the caveats in the new guidelines (and they will).
Update 3: Full text of the memo after the jump…
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