At a press conference on Feb 25, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told reporters that an end to federal interference in state medical cannabis laws, including raids on dispensaries, “is now American policy.”
The Attorney General’s comments reiterated the February 7th White House statement which responded to DEA raids in California after the President’s inauguration, and they indicate a sea change in the long-standing federal policy that prohibits the use of medical cannabis in the thirteen states that have enacted such laws. Americans for Safe Access had been the leading organization in the country pushing for an end to this interference, and because of the calls, letters, and other pressure from our members like you, the President has heard our calls and responded.
At the press conference, a reporter asked questions about DEA raids at medical cannabis facilities in California, to which Holder replied, “What the president said during the campaign, you’ll be surprised to know, will be consistent with what we’ll be doing in law enforcement. He was my boss during the campaign. He is formally and technically and by law my boss now. What he said during the campaign is now American policy.”
Seventy-two million Americans live in states where medical cannabis is legal, but federal law prohibits its use under any circumstances. More than 100 Americans are currently facing prosecution, sentencing, or serving time in prison for medical cannabis offenses right now. ASA hopes the emerging change in federal policy will signal an end to prosecutions and bring those already serving time for medical cannabis offenses home to their families.
“There has been a lot of collateral damage in the federal campaign against medical marijuana patients,” said Steph Sherer, Executive Director of Americans for Safe Access, the nation’s largest medical cannabis advocacy organization. “We need to stop the prosecutions, bring the prisoners home, and begin working to eliminate the conflict between state and federal medical marijuana laws.”
ASA provided recommendations for a new national medical cannabis policy to President Obama and the 111th Congress earlier this year. The reality of a U.S. President who is willing to listen to science and take seriously the suffering of patients has begun to set in across the country, leading to an increase it state level action and a growing sense of the progress in and out of California that will result from the President’s new policy.
