Attorney General Eric Holder’s announcement Monday that the Justice Department will not prosecute medical marijuana users, if those people are following state laws where such use is legal, represented a display of compassion and common sense lacking in the previous administration.
The department under the George W. Bush administration stuck to the position that marijuana, whose sale and use is illegal under federal law, should not be made available even to sufferers of AIDS, cancer and other diseases. It made no difference to the prior administration that these ailing individuals use marijuana to relieve pain and stimulate their appetites.
Holder recognizes, though, that he has a limited number of prosecutors and that his resources should be focused on dangerous drug traffickers. The compassionate side of this decision is that it will allow law-abiding citizens in Nevada and the other 13 states that have legalized medical marijuana to use the substance without fear that law enforcement agents are lurking in the background.
It also makes sense that the Justice Department will focus its energies on drug trafficking, as well as on violations of state medical marijuana laws. Holder aptly said the department “will not tolerate drug traffickers who hide behind claims of compliance with state law to mask activities that are clearly illegal.”
The U.S.-Mexico border, where a deadly drug war has erupted, is the appropriate venue for sweeping Justice Department involvement. The living room of a cancer patient battling unbearable pain is not.
We have opposed legalizing marijuana for the general public, but believe Nevada voters did the right thing by approving marijuana use for medicinal purposes.
Users who follow medical marijuana laws in Nevada and other states are not harming others. They’re not standing on street corners peddling drugs to kids or participating in drive-by shootouts with members of rival gangs.
It is long overdue that this country had an administration that understands the difference between drug criminals and seriously ill patients who are seeking a better quality of life.
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