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This past week, the federal government decided that they would cease raids on legitimate medical marijuana growers. It finally comes after many years where the federal government disagreed with those states that had made medical marijuana legal, and the legal battles that came from it never achieved any real resolution. This should ease some of the pressure in the 13 states that have legalized it, but it still leaves open some interesting windows. For instance, in California there are medical marijuana dispensaries, where people are allowed to purchase marijuana legally.
However, investigations have shown that these dispensaries aren’t following the procedures for verifying that someone has a legal right to purchase it, often not even asking for scripts. Both the federal government and state governments say they will go after these dispensaries that aren’t following the law.
In some states, medical marijuana is only legal if the users grow it in their own homes. This one is definitely interesting, as some people could decide to grow more than enough for their own personal use and try to sell it to someone else, where it would be criminal. In this instance, of course, there’s no way to monitor how much marijuana someone is using, although the presumption is that consumers will only use enough to alleviate their symptoms.
Also, as odd a dichotomy as you might want to believe, marijuana is still illegal under the federal Narcotics Act. What this means is that the federal government, in essence, is acquiescing some of its legal authority in arresting both sellers and users so they can use those resources for other things. It is, in essence, turning its back on its own law for expediency.
It’s also led many pundits to wonder if the federal government is ready to finally legalize marijuana. It seems to have the support of 45% of the American populace in the latest polls, and, just like eliminating prohibition, could ease a lot of the drug crime since the trade would probably fizzle; at least as it pertains to marijuana. There are, of course, groups ready to sue the federal government if that happens, and the federal government will win since it would take an act of Congress to pass the exemption. Either way, there are a lot of people breathing a sigh of relief these days, probably with a hint of smoke coming out with that breath.
