George W. Bush appointee Joseph Russionello is ignoring Attorney General Eric Holder's memorandum on raiding marijuana dispensaries and continuing the harassment and raids.
Polls show that older, conservative people want feds beating down your door for a God-given plant and they want Republican federal prosecutors usurping states' rights to promote their neo-fascist agenda. Younger Americans don't want that.
Update: Apparently, per comments, this guy will soon be gone. Works for me.
Operators of medical marijuana dispensaries in California are quickly learning that, contrary to recent news headlines, federal raids of medical marijuana clubs aren't going to stop -- an assertion the US attorney for northern California is unequivocally making.
[snip]
"I think it’s unfortunate that people have for some reason picked up on this as a change in policy, because it’s really not a change at all," the Mission Local news site in San Francisco quotes Russoniello as saying.
Asked by Mission Local if federal prosecutors would stop investigating and prosecuting dispensaries in California, Russionello said: "The short answer is no."
It's not clear from Russionello's comments whether Holder's instructions were intended to have no effect on policy, or whether Russionello, an appointee of President George W. Bush, is himself applying a restrictive interpretation of the attorney general's memo. But it does contradict what had been reported about Holder's memo, which is that it would represent a "significant departure" from Bush-era policy.
http://rawstory.com/...
Another source:
The federal government will continue raids on medical marijuana operations in California despite guidelines issued by the Justice Department two weeks ago indicating the contrary.
"I think it's unfortunate that people have for some reason picked up on this as a change in policy, because it's really not a change at all," said Joseph Russoniello, federal prosecutor for the northern district of California, who was appointed in 2007 by then-President George W. Bush.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/...
Update: I am glad to report per calchala that Russoniello will soon be replaced.
To all those tracking US Attorney changes (1+ / 0-)
Recommended by:gnostradamus
Here's the website for you: Mainjustice US Attorney Update
Joseph P. Russoniello is being set to be replaced by one of four people: Melinda Haag, Matt Jacobs or Kathryn Ruemmler
by calchala on Tue Nov 03, 2009 at 06:16:49 PM PST
HT Angry Mouse:
The government's top lawyer said that in 14 states with some provisions for medical marijuana use, federal prosecutors should focus only on cases involving higher-level drug traffickers, money launderers or people who use the state laws as a cover.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
My bold.
Republicans, as usual, just want to use drug laws to exact retributation against their political enemies.