By Marie Myung-Ok LeeJanuary 22, 2013
As a candidate in 2008, Barack Obama emphatically stated that medical marijuana use was an issue best left to the states. One of the first promises he made as the newly elected president was that he was “not going to be using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws.” This was even reiterated formally in the so-called Ogden memo of 2009, in which the Department of Justice instructed U.S. attorneys that federal enforcement should apply only to medical marijuana operations that were not in clear compliance with state law.
Obama has since “clarified” those promises, but it still makes no sense that Matthew R. Davies, a business school graduate who set out in 2009 to create a medical marijuana dispensary that would be in full compliance with California law, is facing up to 15 years in prison — with a mandatory five-year sentence.
This is just one more puzzling incident in the history of a president who not only made these promises but has also admitted to heavy recreational use of marijuana himself in his youth. As a second-term president, with little to lose, why is he continuing his odd campaign on a state-approved industry that employs people, pays taxes and distributes a safe and clinically useful product?
Lost in this fray is the fact that marijuana is medicine. My son is autistic and has an autoimmune gastrointestinal problem for which, at my suggestion, his doctor prescribed him Marinol (a synthetic THC drug). When that proved ineffective, the doctor agreed to prescribe medical cannabis, which is legal in Rhode Island where we were living and, unlike in some states, such as California, is approved for pediatric use. At the time, our son was eating his clothes. Whether as an autistic behavior or because of gastric pain, we weren’t sure; but every day, unless we had him shirtless, he would consume the entire front of his cotton shirt, and sometimes his jacket, on the bus to and from school.
Medical marijuana cured him. But it wasn’t as easy as running out and buying him a joint. When we first considered cannabis, my husband and I made a decision not to procure it illegally. That was complicated because although medical marijuana was legal in Rhode Island at the time, dispensaries were not, and we needed information about what kind of marijuana might help our son.
Full Article:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-lee-medical-marijuana-20130122,0,6773192.story
Obama has since “clarified” those promises, but it still makes no sense that Matthew R. Davies, a business school graduate who set out in 2009 to create a medical marijuana dispensary that would be in full compliance with California law, is facing up to 15 years in prison — with a mandatory five-year sentence.
This is just one more puzzling incident in the history of a president who not only made these promises but has also admitted to heavy recreational use of marijuana himself in his youth. As a second-term president, with little to lose, why is he continuing his odd campaign on a state-approved industry that employs people, pays taxes and distributes a safe and clinically useful product?
Lost in this fray is the fact that marijuana is medicine. My son is autistic and has an autoimmune gastrointestinal problem for which, at my suggestion, his doctor prescribed him Marinol (a synthetic THC drug). When that proved ineffective, the doctor agreed to prescribe medical cannabis, which is legal in Rhode Island where we were living and, unlike in some states, such as California, is approved for pediatric use. At the time, our son was eating his clothes. Whether as an autistic behavior or because of gastric pain, we weren’t sure; but every day, unless we had him shirtless, he would consume the entire front of his cotton shirt, and sometimes his jacket, on the bus to and from school.
Medical marijuana cured him. But it wasn’t as easy as running out and buying him a joint. When we first considered cannabis, my husband and I made a decision not to procure it illegally. That was complicated because although medical marijuana was legal in Rhode Island at the time, dispensaries were not, and we needed information about what kind of marijuana might help our son.
Full Article:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-lee-medical-marijuana-20130122,0,6773192.story