Government Will Not Sue To Stop Colo. And Washington

[ozzrokk]

http://news.msn.com/us/feds-wont-sue-to-stop-marijuana-use-in-2-states   Feds won't sue over legal pot in Colo., Wash.

AP Photo: File

A man smokes marijuana at a marijuana social club in Denver on Dec. 31, 2012.

1 hr agoPete Yost of Associated Press

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In a sweeping policy change, the Obama administration says it won't block laws allowing recreational marijuana use in Colorado and Washington state.

WASHINGTON — The federal government says it will not sue to stop the states of Colorado and Washington from allowing recreational marijuana use.

In a sweeping national policy announcement, the Justice Department outlined eight top priority areas for its enforcement of marijuana laws.

They range from preventing the distribution of marijuana to minors to preventing sales revenue from going to criminal enterprises, gangs and cartels and preventing the diversion of marijuana outside of states where it is legal under state law.

The announcement follows comments in December by President Barack Obama, who said it does not make sense for the federal government to go after recreational drug users in a state that has legalized recreational use of small amounts of marijuana.

 

 

[greenbuddha]

Yippee yahoo!!!

 

Pulse rate pounding news!

 

Best news I've heard since Washington and Colorado legalized.

[ozzrokk]

This is HUGE to the cannabis world........ H U G E........

[BirdHunter]

But don't they consider canna business owners organized crime and cartels?

[Believeitheals]

http://www.justice.gov/iso/opa/resources/3052013829132756857467.pdf

 

Above is a link to the letter was sent out to all the State AG's

[Herb Cannabis]

I just saw this on MSNBC only moments ago.  It's a step in the right direction.

[LongHairBri]

THIS IS A HUGE STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION. AND A HUGE SHIFT IN LONG STANDING POLICY. The first real sign the end of Federal prohibition is coming to an end.  TODAY IS A  HISTORIC DAY FOR FELLOW HERBACEOUS AMERICANS.

 

There are other issues that will need to be addressed to bring an end to this failed war on drugs and MMJ. I'd like progress on international policies that offer no solutions to the farmers, only harm...., and forfeiture laws. we have to end the malicious way they are applied. by the very same agencies that get the loot. who admit they have now become dependent on those funds. it should be criminal.............maybe our great-great-grandchildren will get reparations or something.. hell. I'd settle for a plaque~ as long as things change....BUT, today that process started !!!!!

 

 

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/29/eric-holder-marijuana-washington-colorado-doj_n_3837034.html/
"WASHINGTON -- The United States government took an historic step back from its long-running drug war on Thursday, when Attorney General Eric Holder informed the governors of Washington and Colorado that the Department of Justice would allow the states to create a regime that would regulate and implement the ballot initiatives that legalized the use of marijuana for adults.

A Justice Department official said that Holder told the governors in a joint phone call early Thursday afternoon that the department would take a "trust but verify approach" to the state laws. DOJ is reserving its right to file a preemption lawsuit at a later date, since the states' regulation of marijuana is illegal under the Controlled Substances Act.

Deputy Attorney General James Cole also issued a three-and-a-half page memo to U.S. attorneys across the country on Thursday outlining eight priorities for federal prosecutors enforcing marijuana laws. According to the guidance, DOJ will still prosecute individuals or entities to prevent:

the distribution of marijuana to minors;
revenue from the sale of marijuana from going to criminal enterprises, gangs and cartels;
the diversion of marijuana from states where it is legal under state law in some form to other states;
state-authorized marijuana activity from being used as a cover or pretext for the trafficking of other illegal drugs or other illegal activity;
violence and the use of firearms in the cultivation and distribution of marijuana
drugged driving and the exacerbation of other adverse public health consequences associated with marijuana use;
growing of marijuana on public lands and the attendant public safety and environmental dangers posed by marijuana production on public lands;
preventing marijuana possession or use on federal property.
The eight high-priority areas leave prosecutors bent on targeting marijuana businesses with a fair amount of leeway, especially the exception for "adverse public health consequences." And prosecutors have shown a willingness to aggressively interpret DOJ guidance in the past, as the many medical marijuana dispensary owners now behind bars can attest.

U.S. Attorneys will individually be responsible for interpreting the guidelines and how they apply to a case they intend to prosecute. A Justice Department official said, for example, that a U.S Attorney could go after marijuana distributors who used cartoon characters in their marketing because that could be interpreted as attempting to distribute marijuana to minors.

But the official stressed that the guidance was not optional, and that prosecutors would no longer be allowed to use the sheer volume of sales or the for-profit status of an operation as triggers for prosecution, though these factors could still affect their prosecutorial decisions.

The Obama administration has struggled with the legalization of medical marijuana in several states. Justice Department Officials had instructed federal prosecutors across the country not to focus federal resources on individuals who were complying with state laws regarding the use of medical marijuana. But the U.S. attorneys in several states that had legalized medical marijuana rebelled, and what was known as the Ogden memo faced stiff resistance from career prosecutors.

"That's just not what they do,” one former Justice official told HuffPost. “They prosecute people."

As a result of the internal pushback at DOJ, a new memo was issued by Deputy Attorney General James Cole in 2011 that gave U.S. attorneys more cover to go after medical marijuana distributors. Federal prosecutors began threatening local government officials with prosecution if they went forward with legislation regulating medical cannabis.

After recreational marijuana initiatives passed in Washington and Colorado in November, President Barack Obama said the federal government had “bigger fish to fry” and would not make going after marijuana users a priority.

Holder said back in December that the federal response to the passage of the state ballot measures would be coming “relatively soon.”

Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson told HuffPost his office was preparing for the “worst-case scenario” of a federal lawsuit against the law."