The Terrifying Trio of U.S. Drug Enforcement: Drug Enforcement Administration Acting Administrator Michele Leonhart; Attorney General Eric Holder; and FBI Assistant Director Kevin Perkins
Steph Sherer, Executive Director, Americans for Safe Access, the federal government has spent $500 million prosecuting medical marijuana "offenses" in state where medical marijuana is legal.
He writes AG Holder Has Failed to Stop DOJ Interference when it comes to Medical Marijuana; Now, It's Up to Congress.
Congress will vote on a budget amendment tomorrow that will prohibit the Department of Justice (DOJ) from spending any funds on arrests, raids, and prosecutions of state authorized medical cannabis patients and their providers. The “Rohrabacher-Farr Amendment” to the Commerce, Justice and Science (CJS) appropriations bill is being introduced by 10 House members, evenly split between Republicans and Democrats. [...]
From the time President Obama took office, his administration has said that it would not spend funds to undermine the country’s medical cannabis laws. Underscoring this point, the DOJ has introduced a series of memos, instructing U.S. Attorneys to defer to local and state enforcement efforts. The most recent policy memorandum issued on August 29, 2013 reinforces that it is “not an efficient use of federal resources to focus enforcement efforts on seriously ill individuals, or on their individual caregivers.” Yet, defiance from U.S. Attorneys in California, Montana, Michigan and other states has cost taxpayers more than $300 million under the Obama Administration alone, according to data published last year by Americans for Safe Access.
Support for the CJS amendment has grown in recent weeks after ongoing, aggressive enforcement actions that fly in the face of the DOJ directives. The current federal case that best Illustrates the problem is that of the Kettle Falls 5 in Washington State, where prosecutors are aggressively targeting individual patients accused of growing a modest amount of medical marijuana for their own personal use. The DOJ has spent $3 million so far to prosecute the Kettle Falls 5 with no end in sight. The four family members and a close friend claim they were in full compliance with state law, yet each face a ten-year mandatory minimum sentence with the possibility of life in prison. One of the defendants, 70-year-old Larry Harvey, isn’t expected to survive the minimum prison term.
I encourage you to go read this original article. If I try to summarize the next long paragraphs providing heart breaking examples of innocent, ordinary American's facing insane, cruel, and destructive mandatory federal sentences for medical marijuana offenses.
I've tried to give Attorney General Eric Holder every benefit of the doubt on this topic, however, after reading daily of totally ordinary and good American citizens having their lives destroyed by A.G. Eric Holder's DOJ, and Michele Leonhart's DEA, I can remain silent no longer. Innocent people are confined to jail while we enjoy our lives.
A few months ago, our hopes were raised as rumors circulated that President Obama was going to pardon 1,000 non-violent drug offenders. So what are doing making sure we put 10 times that many into jail for mandatory 5 and 10 years federal sentences so that for profit prison owners do not become upset?
The fierce hypocrisy of political expediency apparently knows no party boundaries.
Steph Sherer mentions there is a broadcast a 8:00 p.m. on this topic tonight. Please support the Rohrabacher-Farr Amendment so we can try to save this administration from itself. And, I guess we should say the same about our own Party. Senator Rand Paul is laughing about this as he racks up standing ovations at colleges denouncing the stupidity of our nation's and President Obama's drug laws.
I am totally disgusted with ourselves. When some of my young sons friend tell me that there is no difference between Republicans and Democrats, on this topic all I can do is hang my head in shame. This is after I promised them, based on what we were told, that President Obama's DOJ and DEA was not going to interfere with state who make medical marijuana legal.
We are about to lose a generation of voters. The same demographic, BTW, where some of "us" are "idealistically" imagining we are going to rally in big GOTV effort in November to get them to come out to vote and help us throw the Republicans out for the good of the country.
Wake up Democrats!
10:14 PM PT: Jacob Fischer of Buzzfeed reports House Votes To End DEA Raids On Legal Medical Marijuana Operations
WASHINGTON — The House passed an amendment late Thursday night to restrict the Drug Enforcement Administration from targeting medical marijuana operations in states where it is legal.
The 219-189 decision came on a bipartisan appropriations amendment spearheaded by California Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher and California Democrat Sam Farr. The amendment still faces several procedural hurdles before it is ratified, but this is the first time such an amendment has succeeded in the House.
The vote is an encouraging one for marijuana advocates, who say it shows the congressional pendulum is finally tilting in their favor.
“The significance of it is a symbolic importance,” said Dan Riffle, director of federal policies at the Marijuana Policy Project. “We are nearing a point now where the United States Congress is essentially ready to end marijuana prohibition.”
The amendment passed by one vote.
It's about time. A few hours ago I posted a rather scathing blast at A.G. Eric Holder and DEA Director Micelle Leonhart.
22 states and the District of Columbia allow medical marijuana.