Exhaling after marijuana policy shift

They finally exhaled this past week when U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said federal agents will now target marijuana distributors only when they violate both federal and state laws, a departure from the policy of the Bush administration.

It's not seen by many as a move by the Obama administration toward the legalization of marijuana.

However, it could end much of the confusion among state and federal authorities dealing with the mishmash of laws in which cultivating, using and selling marijuana for medical purposes is allowed by states but outlawed by the federal government.

“This signals, in my mind, a true kind of federalism,” said Jody Armour, a law professor at the University of Southern California. “The federal government is allowing states to take chances, to take experiments and see what happens.”

California is one of 13 states that allow medical use of marijuana.

Over the past 2{ years, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration has raided at least 80 dispensaries in California, the majority in the Central District that extends from the Central Coast down to Orange County and includes Los Angeles.

Yet criminal charges have only been filed in several of those cases against the biggest distributors accused of breaking both federal and state laws, said Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in the Central District of California.

“What we have done in all of our narcotic cases is to focus on large-scale traffickers,” Mrozek said. “In terms of what happens in the future, the federal government will continue to enforce federal narcotics law.”

The confusion was reflected in a case against Charles Lynch, who ran a marijuana dispensary in Morro Bay. Federal prosecutors said he should have known his employees sold marijuana outside his store.

Lynch, 47, was convicted in August of distributing more than 100 kilograms of marijuana. His sentencing is set for Monday; guidelines allow up to 85 years but prosecutors recommended a five-year prison sentence.

Lynch's attorneys will try to persuade Department of Justice officials to drop the case.

“The feds picked the wrong guy,” federal public defender Reuven Cohen said. “It's pure fiction that somehow Charlie was not in compliance with state law.”

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