There's been a lot of hubris over the DOJ raids on retail storefront commercial medical marihuana "dispensaries" in California, with dramatic images of "jackbooted stormtroopers", armed to the teeth, rousting them for selling a legal medicine.
Having been warned of the crackdown, the "dispensaries" have mobilized their patrons, who need their medication, like granny in a wheelchair, to show up and protest on camera during these raids, objecting obstreperously and being treated rudely by "fascist paramilitary pigs with masks on, pointing large weapons at everyone", while a crowd chants, "Shame, Shame, Shame!"
While all of this is more or less..."true"...the "analysis" that typically accompanies this story is reflected in headlines like the title of this diary, accusing Obama of "betraying" and "attacking" pot heads, supposedly reneging on his previous promise Not to prosecute state sanctioned medical marijuana patients, doctors, caregivers and growers.
That spin is a damn lie.
Obama has Not gone back on that promise, and is Not "cracking down" on those medical marihuana patients, their doctors, or their caregivers and growers who are in compliance with state law.
In that regard, his policy is a complete reversal of Bush policy.
What he has directed DOJ to crack down on is the rapidly proliferating multi-million dollar profiteering of a burgeoning quasi-legal retail commercial storefront "dispensary" industry, which is not specifically mentioned in the state law, and is alleged to operate contrary to federal Commerce law.
Yes, the dispensaries have been designated a step too far, in the present DOJ leniency toward medical marihuana. But this is not an attack on medical pot, per se.
Advocates for the "dispensary" networks, which sprang up all over the state even before legalization, and have been a principle source of medical marihuana for many people, claim this is the only way for patients to get their medicine, so, "therefore", DOJ, by attacking the storefronts, is "attacking patients" and the whole medical marihuana paradigm.
But in fact, in the face of the crackdown, people are merely being compelled to seek alternative legal means, which are, in fact, provided for in the state law, and do not conflict with federal Commerce law, or require commercial retail storefronts.
The California law, as it stands, probly needs some tweaking to better define and facilitate those alternative means, since it was written mainly with the dispensary networks in mind, and the present wording is very vague...but the program does allow for caregiver/growers to transport the medicine to the patient.
And that's what they're now doing, quickly replicating and expanding upon previous home delivery networks, which have also long operated with impunity, thus contradicting the supposed "need" for storefronts.
That's how we roll in Oregon, where I live, and it's worked just fine, for years now.
We rejected a "dispensary" scheme referendum last election, brought by the Libertarians, because we don't "need" it, and it would just draw heat from the feds.
DOJ is now warning other states contemplating legalization that they should avoid the "dispensary" pitfall, because while medical marihuana, per se, will not be prosecuted by the feds, retail commercial storefronts selling pot will be.
Further analysis below the squiggle...
Some relevant links:
Home Delivery
Justice Dept. Policy
House Democrats Introduce Federal Legalization Legislation
I think it's important to note that several diarists here, and propagandists on the web in general, are screaming bloody murder about these DOJ raids, and they also tend to be those elements most likely to take a similarly subjective, unprincipled, hyperbolic anti-Democratic line, on any given topic.
Such elements have seized on these DOJ raids to slag the Obama administration, relentlessly, ruthlessly, just like they do with everything else, twisting and spinning the truth of the matter, and lying their asses off, just to score rhetorical points.
This is all about deliberately sowing cynical defeatism and demoralization, to promulgate electoral boycott and splitting sentiments, to suppress likely Democratic voter turnout.
Needless to say, the Libertarian Party is all over this particular "issue", as "proof" that we should support Ron Paul, lol...and they are working it to the max, since they are heavily invested in the whole medical marihuana industry that has sprung up around legalization.
Indeed, the Libertarians have long been prime movers and shakers in the drive to legalize pot, and played a heavy hand in crafting the California medical law to somewhat nebulously allow for continuance of their pre-existing storefront networks.
As in the gay movement, where Libertarians have also been among the most organized and intensive activists, they like nothing more than to demonize Obama, and to convince likely Democratic voters to boycott or split the vote.
If you've seen people freaking out over this issue, they were probly freakin' Libertarians, or subject to very substantial immersion in Libertarian propaganda on the topics, which is very well financed and prolific, verging on pervasive, in targeted social and political milieus.
Of course, they could also just be opportunist oppositionalists of virtually any stripe, from the right to the left, just seizing on a "reason" to spew their anti-Democratic bile.
But the line surrounding the pot issue is primarily emanating from the Libertarians, who would much rather provoke a confrontation with DOJ and Obama, than not.
This could serve as a "gateway", heh, to much deeper discussion, which I'll welcome in comments.