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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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US: Feds pledge to ease pot prosecutions Dale Rodebaugh Durango Herald Tuesday 20 Oct 2009 The policy, which currently applies in 14 states that allow medical marijuana, was announced in March but in less-precise terms. “They committed it to writing,” Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said by phone from Washington. “This should present some semblance of guidelines for everyone involved – even beyond medical marijuana users and dispensaries. “The memo should help clear issues for managers of Section 8 (federally subsidized) housing, for example,” St. Pierre said. “People in those housing programs have been thrown out of their units for using medical marijuana.” Nate Fete, business manager of Natures Medicine, said the news from Washington is heartening. “It’s a good thing for the cause, for patients and for dispensaries,” Fete said. “We follow state guidelines so there won’t be changes for us, but it’s good to see the right action is being taken. “The law makes it a little safer for us to do what we do,” Fete said. “It also should give medical marijuana users a little more confidence.” Colorado Attorney General John Suthers wasn’t as optimistic. In a statement, he said while federal guidelines are clearer, they rely on the faulty assumption that Colorado law is explicit on medical marijuana. It isn’t, he said. “Amendment 20 (approved by voters in 2000 to legalize medical marijuana), written by marijuana-legalization proponents, is very vague and contains no meaningful regulatory scheme,” Suthers said. “Dispensaries and grow operations are not mentioned in either Colorado’s Constitution or its statutes. The vacuum gives rise to problems I and other law-enforcement leaders have highlighted over the past few months. This legal vacuum has left Colorado’s towns and cities to grapple with the state’s burgeoning marijuana trade.” City councilors in Durango, which has four medical marijuana dispensaries, are scheduled to vote tonight on an ordinance regulating such outlets. The vote could be simply a formality since councilors approved the proposed stipulations 5-0 on Oct. 6. Under the ordinance, dispensaries can’t be located within 500 feet of schools, day care centers or public parks. In addition: - There would be no smoking of pot less than 15 feet from a dispensary. - Hours of operation would be 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. - Dispensary owners and operators must be certified by the state, and owners and managers must undergo a criminal background check. Approval of the ordinance would end a 60-day moratorium on the issuance of business licenses for dispensaries put in place in September. The existing dispensaries continued to operate during the blackout. An Associated Press story Monday said the new guidelines “make it clear that federal agents will go after people whose marijuana distribution goes beyond what is permitted under state law or use medical marijuana as a cover for other crimes. “It will not be a priority to use federal resources to prosecute patients with serious illnesses or their caregivers who are complying with state laws on medical marijuana,” the Associated Press quoted Holder as saying. But, Holder continued, “We will not tolerate drug traffickers who hide behind claims of compliance with state law to mask activities that are clearly illegal.” daler@durangoherald.com http://durangoherald.com/sections/News/2009/10/20/Feds_pledge_to_ease_pot_prosecutions/
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