Medical marijuana dispensaries will no longer be prosecuted, U.S. attorney general says

The statement by Eric H. Holder Jr. represents a landmark shift from the Bush administration's zero tolerance toward the use of pot by people with cancer and other serious ailments.

By Josh Meyer and Scott Glover
LA Times
March 19, 2009

Reporting from Los Angeles and Washington — U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. said Wednesday that the Justice Department has no plans to prosecute pot dispensaries that are operating legally under state laws in California and a dozen other states -- a development that medical marijuana advocates and civil libertarians hailed as a sweeping change in federal drug policy.

In recent months, Obama administration officials have indicated that they planned to take a hands-off approach to such clinics, but Holder's comments -- made at a wide-ranging briefing with reporters -- offered the most detailed explanation to date of the changing priorities toward the controversial prosecutions.

The Bush administration targeted medical marijuana distributors even in states that had passed laws allowing use of the drug for medical purposes by cancer patients, those dealing with chronic pain or other serious ailments. Holder said the priority of the new administration is to go after egregious offenders operating in violation of both federal and state law, such as those being used as fronts for drug dealers.

"Those are the organizations, the people, that we will target," the attorney general said.

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