Medical Marijuana Memo: DOJ Cracks Down On Pot Shops

WASHINGTON -- Medical marijuana advocates are pushing back against a new Justice Department threat to raid and prosecute medical pot shops even in states where the drug is legal.

During the 2008 campaign, Obama promised to end such raids, which were commonplace under the Bush administration. Once he took office, the Justice Department, citing that campaign pledge, issued a memo that instructed federal law enforcement officials to back off. If a person was in compliance with state and local laws, the memo instructed, just let them be.

The new memo, from Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole, purports to provide "guidance" on the previous memo, but reads more like a warning shot to medical marijuana shops. The previous memo, Cole writes, "advised that it is likely not an efficient use of federal resources to focus enforcement efforts on individuals with cancer or other serious illnesses who use marijuana as part of a recommended treatment regimen consistent with applicable state law, or their caregivers."

But it might be an efficient use of resources to target the people who sell medical pot to the very people Cole says should be shielded from federal assault. "The term 'caregiver' as used in the memorandum meant just that: individuals providing care to individuals with cancer or other serious illnesses, not commercial operations cultivating, selling or distributing marijuana," he adds.

Cole's characterization of his new memo as a simple clarification of the original one downplays the radical departure it represents. The original memo clearly attempted to distinguish between pot shops that operated within state laws and those that bent or broke them. "[P]rosecution of individuals with cancer or other serious illnesses who use marijuana as part of a recommended treatment regimen consistent with applicable state law, or those caregivers in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state law who provide such individuals with marijuana, is unlikely to be an efficient use of limited federal resources," the landmark 2009 memo read. "On the other hand, prosecution of commercial enterprises that unlawfully market and sell marijuana for profit continues to be an enforcement priority of the Department."

Pot shop owners and advocates are apoplectic. "Cancer patients are going to have to grow their own product or buy it on the street somewhere," said Aaron Smith, executive director of the National Cannabis Industry Association, which represents Big Pot in Washington.

Smith said he doubted that any shops would close their doors in the face of the threat. "I don't think anybody's going to close down as a result of the memo. People are nervous, but this industry --particularly look at California, which bloomed pretty quickly during the Bush administration, when there were weekly raids."