Obama’s 2008 presidential election victory was cheered by people from different walks of life who saw hope in Obama and expected that their concerns will be addressed. On January 20, 2009 Americans cried tears of joy and relief as Barack Obama was inaugurated.
His supporters included millions of people including antiwar activist, healthcare reformers, bank corruption reformers, unemployed, gay and lesbians and, of course, medical marijuana advocates who had hoped the new President will take steps to end marijuana Prohibition. Within two years since than most of them have been disappointed by Obama’s policies in contrast to what they thought Obama promised. The medical marijuana is no exception.
In October 2009, Obama Administration’s policy was revealed when Attorney General Eric Holder stated that drug traffickers and people who use firearms will continue to be direct targets of federal prosecutors, but that, on his watch, "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."
This was a significant development because under the Controlled Substances Act, which is more than three decades old, marijuana remains within the category of drugs most tightly restricted by the government. According to Americans for Safe Access, during the Bush administration federal authorities conducted an estimated 200 raid in California alone. A 2005 U.S. Supreme Court case made clear that the federal government has the discretion to enforce federal drug laws even in states that had approved some relaxation of marijuana statutes for sick patients. Therefore, the announcement by Attorney General Eric Holder led to cheers and support from the press and the advocacy groups as U.S. appeared to ease stance on medical marijuana.
In a year since than it appears the Obama Administration has changed but not in favor of medical marijuana. Advocates feel that following dozens of aggressive DEA raids, along with some unusual IRS audits, the Department of Justice has now begun openly endeavoring to destroy carefully regulated state programs before they get off the ground. Such new actions even constitute a direct threat of arrest against state employees acting in good faith to administer perfectly lawful state programs. As a result, several states have started reassessing their medical marijuana laws after stern warnings from the federal government that everyone from licensed growers to regulators could be subjected to prosecution.
Has Obama Administration reneged on its promise and is suddenly trying to destroy medical marijuana?
Some realistic observers, like Fred Gardner, say that Obama Never Promised You a Pot Garden. There is nothing "sudden" or unprecedented about the DEA raids and other oppressive measures emanating from the Department of Justice. And neither Obama nor the DOJ ever expressed unambiguous support for medical marijuana. It was the reform honchos themselves who misread and misrepresented Administration policy.
In fact, if you look back, in 2009, at the time of announcement, some activists expressed frustration that the administration stopped far short of endorsing wholesale marijuana legalization. Some advocates were skeptical and noted that senior Obama administration officials had made public comments before in line with the Justice Department policy, only to have law enforcement agents, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, take part in raids soon afterward. In fact the Justice Department memo clearly indicated that it is not creating a new legal defense for people who may have violated the Controlled Substances Act. Instead, the memo is intended to guide prosecutors on where to train their scarce investigative resources.
As far back as April 2009, Fred Gardner noted in chronology of Administration actions and statements regarding marijuana and brought attention to Obama's Chimerical Marijuana Policy which, like any of his approaches, were "fakes left, goes right" from the start.
On January 22, 2009, two days after Obama's inauguration, DEA agents raided a South Lake Tahoe cannabis dispensary run by a wheelchair-bound activist named Ken Estes. They took five pounds of herb and a few thousand dollars. "A typical rip-and-run," is how Estes described it. Since then, it has continued with several cases of raids and trial.
Later that year, the Administration gave drug-policy reformers another occasion to cheer (but not a real reason to cheer) in October '09 when David Ogden, the second-highest official at DOJ, issued a formal “Memorandum for Selected United States Attorneys on Investigations and Prosecutions in States Authorizing the Medical Use of Marijuana."
Some people noted at the time that the Ogden memo "restated the mixed messages Attorney General Eric Holder had sent out verbally." The Ogden memo made it clear than any dispensary was a "fair game" for the DEA. "Prosecution of commercial enterprises that unlawfully market and sell marijuana for profit continues to be an enforcement priority of the Department," wrote Ogden.
The law enforcement can only determine if a given business is making a profit by raiding the premises, seizing their books and computers, their cash on hand, and their herb. That explains the reports of dozens of aggressive DEA raids and unusual IRS audits.
To the activists who feel betrayed, the important question is why did the pro-cannabis reformers misinterpret and misrepresent Obama Administration policy so consistently and for so long? Why did they affix a "kosher" seal to Obama's baloney? As Fred Garner explains in Obama Never Promised You a Pot Garden:
“Political leaders owe the rank-and-file accurate information and analysis. Obviously it is advantageous for fund-raising purposes to report success, and this was certainly a factor. But it wasn't just their own interests that the reform honchos were advancing with false claims of Administration support. Above all, the honchos were serving the interests of Cannabis-industry entrepreneurs eager to attract customers and investors. Starting in the fall of 2008, the line "Obama is going to let it happen," induced countless thousands of people to visit pro-cannabis doctors and then their local dispensaries.
The most successful California dispensary operators developed franchising ventures and pitched investors, using Obama's alleged hands-off approach as part of their pitch. "Money that was sitting on the sidelines came in after the election," is how one of them summarized the boom that continued through 2009 and well into 2010.
It peaked that fall when Eric Holder warned that if California voters passed a legalization initiative, the feds would "vigorously enforce" federal law to block its implementation. Holder's threat turned the tide against Prop 19, making it seem like a futile and costly gesture of defiance instead of a practical source of revenue for the insolvent state. In the same period, federal threats forced Oakland to back away from (ecologically disastrous) plans for four big industrial grow ops.
What's happening in recent months —the threatening letters from US attorneys to state officials, the tax audits of dispensaries, banks refusing to handle dispensary accounts, etc. — is an escalation, not a change of policy.”
There can be no doubt that the escalation on medical marijuana is an orchestrated campaign possibly involving DEA, prohibitionist think tanks, lobbyists and strategists paid for by the pharmaceutical industry. There may also be truth to the speculation that this is a drug war propaganda tactic. In order to avoid allowing state regulation to further legitimize medical marijuana industry, they're willing to keep things messier than necessary just so it can continually be cited as evidence that medical marijuana is out of control and this can't work.
In an on going struggle for medical marijuana, the Journalists and activists ought to be investigating such issues because complaining about being misled by Barack Obama is not going to be of any immediate benefit.
