Less than a week after Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) proposed on CNN that California host a pilot program for legalizing, regulating, and taxing cannabis, AG Eric Holder fully articulated Wednesday the new federal policy on medical cannabis in what amounts to nothing less than a sea change.
More after the bump.
At a reporter briefing Wednesday:
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.
The LA Times further reported:
A Justice Department official confirmed that Holder's comments effectively articulated a formal Obama administration policy of not going after such clinics.
"Before, he didn't really lay out the policy. Today, he stated the policy," said the Justice Department official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Thus, those patients and collectives/cooperatives operating lawfully under state law, in California this primarily means earning only reasonable compensation (no profiteering), you no longer have anything to fear from the feds.
Meanwhile, also on Wednesday, President Obama addressed a crowd in Loretta Sanchez's district about the the AIG bonus scandal:
Obama was in Republican country, but his appearance at the Orange County Fair event center generated frenzied excitement. He took the stage with Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and Democratic Rep. Loretta Sanchez, who represents the county, in a scene that harkened back to the presidential campaign. The crowd thundered "Obama! Obama!" and the hall reverberated with ecstatic screams and cheers.
Someone close to Sanchez shared with me today that Sanchez joined the President aboard Air Force One en route to Orange County. I suspect cannabis came up. Hope she discussed her pilot legalization program - essentially, the beginning of the end of the "War on Drugs."