Politics

During a Wednesday House oversight hearing with Attorney General Eric Holder that overwhelmingly focused on the invasive government search of Associated Press phone logs and the IRS, one House member took the opportunity to grill Holder on another Department of Justice issue that has provoked criticism from the left. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) tore into Holder over his approach to marijuana, asking why his Justice Department is “continuing to put people in jail,” even as polling shows a majority of Americans believe the plant should not be illegal:

 

One of the greatest threats to liberty has been the government taking people’s liberty for things that people are in favor of. The Pew Research Group shows that 52 percent of people do not think marijuana should be illegal. And yet there are people in jail, and your Justice Department is continuing to put people in jail, for sale, and use, on occasion, of marijuana.

 

That’s something the American public has finally caught up with. It was a cultural lag. And it’s been an injustice for 40 years in this country to take people’s liberty for something that was similar to alcohol. You have continued what is allowing the Mexican cartels power, and the power to make money, ruin Mexico, hurt our country by having a Prohibition in the late 20th and 21st century. We saw it didn’t work in this country in the 20s. We remedied it. This is the time to remedy this Prohibition, and I would hope you would do so.

 

Read more: http://thinkprogress.org

President Barack Obama’s drug czar toed a strict line on marijuana Wednesday, saying federal laws will prevail regardless of state-level efforts to legalize pot.

 

Gil Kerlikowske said enforcement of the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 — which ranks marijuana as a Schedule One drug alongside heroin, LSD and ecstasy — remains in the hands of the US Department of Justice.

 

“No state, no executive can nullify a statute that has been passed by Congress,” the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy told a National Press Club luncheon.

 

“Let’s be clear: law enforcement officers take an oath of office to uphold federal law and they are going to continue to pursue drug traffickers and drug dealers,” he said.

 

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com

I found this mildly interesting. DEA director Michele Leonhart is testifying before Congress today on the DEA budget. I took a look at her prepared remarks, and was struck by the lack of any reference to what is going on in the United States regarding cannabis.

 

There were three references to marijuana in her speech: a reference to the various kinds of drugs seized in Mexico; a reference to non-medical prescription drug use being second only to marijuana; and a reference to synthetic cannabinoids.

 

Nothing about medical marijuana. Nothing about marijuana legalization efforts. Nothing about Colorado or Washington. Absolute silence.

 

Wonder how much of this is about the White House still not wanting to discuss legalization, and how much from the DEA recognizing that to discuss domestic marijuana today is akin to opening the discussion about the future relevance of the DEA.

 

Source: http://www.drugwarrant.com

VIENNA — The head of the U.N. drug watchdog agency is urging U.S. federal officials to challenge the decriminalization of possessing small amounts of marijuana for adults 21 and over in Washington and Colorado.

 

While marijuana remains illegal under federal law, both states legalized possession of up to an ounce in November and are setting up rules to govern growers, processors and retailers.

 

Raymond Yans of the Vienna-based International Narcotics Control Board said in a statement Thursday that Washington is obliged to ensure nationwide implementation of a drug convention "to which the United States is party" and which bans recreational marijuana use.

 

The INCB has no enforcement ability.

 

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said last week the Justice Department has not yet decided whether to sue to block the measures.

 

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com

Colorado and Washington state legalized the recreational use of marijuana in 2012, and Hickenlooper was concerned about how the federal government planned to respond. The new laws set the stage for what could be a sticky conflict between the state and federal government. Although the drug is now legal under state law, it is still banned under the federal Controlled Substances Act, Holder's Department of Justice is tasked to enforce. The states are still waiting for an answer from the feds, and Hickenlooper's inauguration chat with Holder was just one of many conversations in an ongoing discussion between the DOJ and state government officials.

 

Recalling the meeting, Hickenlooper said that Holder expressed that he was open to re-examining how the federal government deals with marijuana use in states that have legalized it, and was considering a variety of actions, including prioritizing enforcement, overhauling the department's rules and even pushing for a change in the law through Congress.

 

"They're open to all that," Hickenlooper told Yahoo News during a visit to Washington, D.C., last weekend. "He's been very candid in the sense that we've got to work on this together."

 

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com