What does the Obama Administration's decision to stop prosecuting marijuana cases that do not violate both federal and state law mean for pending medical marijuana prosecutions? The Sacramento Bee's Article todaycenters around one such medical dispensary prosecution. [Fresno Bee Version, 3/21/09]
An Interesting aside in the article is the split among California Republicans. Former Cal. Attorney General and now U.S. Rep Dan Lungren questions Obama's new policy while Rep. TomMcClintock signs its praises.
Gold River Republican Rep. Dan Lungren, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, said the Obama administration should back a large-scale research project on medicinal marijuana before changing U.S. policy. And he questioned whether the administration can pick and choose which laws to enforce.
"I wonder if you can just turn around policy like that if there is not a change in the law that you are supposed to enforce," said Lungren, who served as California's attorney general when voters approved the state's medical marijuana law in 1996. "As far as I can see, there hasn't been a change in the law passed by the Congress."
Freshman Republican Rep. Tom McClintock of California's 4th District said he applauded Holder's decision and that the federal government should step aside.
"I think wherever you stand on marijuana laws, it's clearly a state's decision to make," McClintock said. "And the people of California made it. I've never believed that the federal government had the right to regulate intrastate commerce."