Back in March, I mentioned that the Obama Administration had signaled it would reevaluate the Bush-era policies regarding federal prosecutions of medical marijuana dispensaries. According to the AP, new guidance is expected to be distributed today to US Attorneys Offices in the 14 states that have legalized medical marijuana. The general thrust is that legitimate dispensaries are to be allowed to go about their business, while those which are posing as fronts, or are engaged in other criminal activity, are to be prosecuted.
I only have one real problem with this plan, and it’s a problem that I have with other aspects of Obama’s we-need-to-focus-on-the-future-and-put-the-past-behind-us attitude, is that it does nothing with the fact that there’s a Supreme Court case, Gonzales v. Raich, 545 U.S. 1 (2005), which states that the federal government, through the Commerce Clause, is allowed to prosecute marijuana cultivators in states where such is legal.
What is left, then, is an environment where, for the next three-and-a-half years, at least, medical marijuana use in states where it is legal will likely not be prosecuted. What happens when a new President gets elected, though? Without getting rid of the Raich precedent, the federal government will still have the ability to change the guidance and start prosecuting medical marijuana cultivators and dispensaries. Thus, while this is welcome news for those people who provide marijuana to those who receive beneficial treatment through it, it’s not necessarily an “all-clear” signal.
