Ken Braun: New Federal Pot Policy Puts Attorney General Schuette In A Lonely Spot

[bobandtorey]

On Election Day 2008, an overwhelming 63 percent of Michigan voters approved a law allowing medical marijuana transactions, despite federal drug laws that prohibit the

 

sale and consumption of pot. But if the state of Michigan won’t stand in the way of medical marijuana providers, then many federal drug enforcement authorities soon won’t

 

be able to either due to the terms of abudget directive agreed to this week in the U.S. Congress and likely to be signed by the President. Michigan’s dogmatic opponents of

 

medical marijuana distribution, such as Attorney General Bill Schuette, will soon be on a lonely island of unpopular policy, separated from most of the electorate and an

 

indifferent federal government.

 

According to a Wednesday news release from Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a drug law reform organization, GOP Congressman Dana Rohrabacher of

 

California has successfully attached an amendment to the federal budget that prohibits the U.S. Department of Justice from “using federal funds to interfere with state-legal

 

medical marijuana operations.” So, while federal law doesn’t yet allow an exception for state-approved medical marijuana facilities to operate, the budget will soon yank

 

funding from enforcement against those retailers wherever they are permitted under state laws.

 

“Congress has finally listened to the vast majority of Americans who believe the federal government has no right to interfere in the personal decision to use medical

 

marijuana made by a patient in consultation with his or her doctor,” said Major Neill Franklin (Ret.), executive director of LEAP and a former Baltimore Police Department

supervisor.

 

Dispensaries had been selling marijuana to patients under protection of Michigan’s 2008 law until a February 2013 Michigan Supreme Court ruling invalidated that

 

protection. While patients remain protected as consumers, retailers no longer have clear legal protection to sell. Ever since, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette - a

 

fierce opponent of the 2008 law - has aggressively encouraged and assisted the closure and criminal prosecution of those seeking to sell pot under the 2008 law.

 

Shortly after the Michigan Supreme Court ruling, Republican state Rep. Mike Callton of Nashville introduced a bill to re-legalize and regulate the retail dispensaries. The bill

 

 

passed the Republican-controlled House last year by an overwhelming 95-14 vote, with 59 Republican supporters. Despite the Legislature moving to remedy the seller

 

ambiguity, the Attorney General didn’t apply his prosecutorial discretion to ease off dispensary businesses people caught in the legal limbo, and continued to prosecute

 

them.

He also used his influence this summer to actively oppose further progress on Callton’s bill. As of Dec. 12, one year after approval in the House, the proposal had not been

 

voted on by the Michigan Senate, despite Republican Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville’s support.

 

At the federal level, Republican U.S. House Speaker John Boehner allowed a vote on the Rohrabacher amendment. Michigan Republican Congressmen Fred Upton of St.

 

Joseph and Justin Amash of Cascade Township voted in favor of it.

 

The Michigan Senate should pass the stalled Callton bill, and Gov. Snyder should sign it.

 

The 2008 medical marijuana vote shows the Attorney General has never been on the side of the vast majority of the citizens he supposed to serve. He has now been

 

abandoned by the federal government above him, and a rapidly growing chunk of his fellow Republicans are demanding a smarter policy path as well. If he’s still holding

 

this up, then it is is time for him to learn to live amiably with the people who need medical marijuana, the business people needed to distribute it, and the three million

 

Michigan voters who said this is the drug policy they want.

[t-pain]

note that it says the doj may not spend funds to "prevent" medical marijuana state implementations.

 

nothing about not interfering with...

[bobandtorey]

Its a Trick ?

 

maybe to arrest more sick people i dunno

[+Malamute]

It's a start..

[Wild Bill]

note that it says the doj may not spend funds to "prevent" medical marijuana state implementations.

 

nothing about not interfering with...

 

If their funding is gone they might hit even harder to make up for the loss with forfeiture money.

[journeymike]

This won't stop leo. Michigan is forcing sick kids and adults to smoke it by taking away their choice of consumption. The Senate is dragging their feet on solving this problem to appease leo. This program has caused lawyers,leo,courts and prisons to boom in business, while the real people in the program suffer. There is no protection under this law. If you think so your only fooling youself. Leo can do as they please and go unpunished. The mm program in Michigan has taught me one thing for sure, the constitution unfortunately just a piece of paper. You wanna be a mm patient, you give up your rights.

[trichcycler]

Caregivers and Patients: Move as soon as you can to a medical marijuana friendly town, spend your money there and enjoy your freedoms in America.

[Kingdiamond]

If their funding is gone they might hit even harder to make up for the loss with forfeiture money.

You beat me to it Wild Bill exactly they will now focus on taking peoples hard earned belongings to fund their lost war on drugs.

[t-pain]

you'd think they would make more money going after cartels though.

 

oh wait, they are in bed with the cartels to get rid of the other cartels. why again?

[Kingdiamond]

you'd think they would make more money going after cartels though.

 

oh wait, they are in bed with the cartels to get rid of the other cartels. why again?

Theres no other reason that that answer as to why the DEA  has concentrated more on the streets of America than they do where the harder stuff is produced.

[trichcycler]

great, now we see the obvious. now what ?

[bobandtorey]

 

Legalization