Exhaling after marijuana policy shift

“Because of the instructions we were given regarding that we were to disregard state law, I felt we had no other option but to convict Mr. Lynch,” juror Andy Gordon wrote.

Fellow panelist Reza Iranpour called the verdict a “miscarriage of justice” and said Lynch was a victim of “bureaucratic conflict.”

Lynch “faces the prospect of being severely punished for trusting misleading laws and regulations,” Iranpour wrote.

Medical marijuana advocates say the change in federal policy announced by Holder mirrors the spirit of the 1996 California ballot initiative that made it legal to sell the drug to people with a prescription.

“I think that if nothing else it gives people a sense of optimism that the federal government is going to back off,” said James Shaw, director of the Union of Medical Marijuana Patients. “But it's not entirely clear to me if they are going to do that.”

Holder didn't specify who would be exempt from future DEA raids. And one federal prosecutor said cases will still be filed against people who violate the law by selling marijuana for non-medicinal purposes and other actions.

“From the type of dispensaries we have seen over the years, it may be anticipated this does not signal an end to federal enforcement actions but instead a refinement,” said acting U.S. Attorney Lawrence Brown in Sacramento.

Times have changed, agreed Elliot Katz, a senior member of a Los Angeles-based marijuana collective, but not necessarily for the better.

He recalled walking into a dispensary when he was first issued a medical marijuana card in the mid-1990s and finding that everyone was visibly sick.

These days, marijuana users who have no medical reason to obtain the drug are taking advantage of the system, he said.

“It's up to the doctor or dispensary operator to weed out those people,” said Katz, 46, who has AIDS. “The government can do all they want to regulate, but it's up to us to regulate ourselves.”

1|2

SharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos Respond to this email