Only in California, do we have the most difficult state laws ever written. Laws with loop holes and open ends that constantly needs to be written over numerous times just for clarification. Such as the case when congress effectively lifted the federal ban on medical marijuana a year ago, Californians drove the landmark change, all tucked into a sprawling spending package by a Cali liberal lawmaker and his conservative colleague.
A year later, marijuana legalization advocates are conflicted over how big a victory the congressional vote, which was repeated this month, has turned out to be.
“The number of raids has dropped substantially, though not completely,” across the country, said a government affairs director from a medical marijuana advocacy group. Raids you say? Yes! A federal court ruling this fall, if it is upheld, would limit federal agents from targeting all but operations that are clearly flouting state law.
But in California, in particular, federal prosecutors continue to pursue cases, in large part because of flaws in the existing state medical marijuana law, which all sides agree is long overdue for an overhaul. Gov. Jerry Brown has signed three measures to clarify the state law, but those won’t take effect until 2018. Again re-written to clarify?
So for now, since California was America’s birthplace for legal medical, it remains the center of legal disputes as federal prosecutors struggle to navigate a murky landscape in where to draw the line between healers and drug dealers which to them is not always clear.
And of course, officials from the Justice Department declined comment, citing continued litigation.
But congress has put the department in a pickle, Why? Because Federal law still classifies marijuana in the most dangerous category of narcotics, alongside heroin and LSD, substances which the law declares to be lacking any accepted medical use. So congress has declined to change that even as it has approved the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment, as the provision has come to be known.
Complicating matters are the several states that now permit the sale of marijuana for recreational use. The Obama administration has opted to allow that experiment to continue unabated. So operations in California, like Harbor side, in Oakland and one of the largest dispensaries in the nation that target patients seeking the drug to treat ailments can still be prosecuted while shops in Denver that unabashedly cater to college students on weekend binges operate freely.
Over the summer, Farr and Rohrabacher accused the Justice Department of illegally misappropriating federal money to continue those prosecutions, calling on its inspector general to launch an investigation. The department has yet to respond.
So if you are a bud tender, hand bud trimmer, or an operator of a commercial bud trimming machine that work in some of the bigger dispensaries in Cali, do not be surprised if a federal raid happens to make a visit while you are in the middle of your tuna sandwich!
Just remember they may be confused, Federal officials still trying to decipher dispensaries as “Trojan horses” all designed to allow effective legalization for anyone who could fake an ache,” So says one confused official. Oh Boy!
Michael Garay ~