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.
So the White is making political decision on who to prosecute. It is against the federal law to smoke and possession marijuana.
Why is Eric Holder requiring a do-over of his Justice Department's "Opinion" on the D.C. Voting bill? Because he did not like the result
Why is Eric Holder working with Harry Reid to fire the Nevada U.S. Attorney General
Why has Eric Holder stopped enforcement of the capture of illegal immigrants in the workplace?
Why has Eric Holder made a decision to move the Gitmo detainees to Washington DC?
Why is Eric Holder prosecuting the Blackwater guards in the 2007 Baghdad shootings when the FBI forensics cannot match up any of the bullets or the sound recordings?
Prosecutorial misconduct in not limited to Eric Holder. DEMOCRAT Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto and DEMOCRAT Lead Prosecutor Conrad Hafen are abusing their exercise of selective prosecutorial discretion by not prosecuting Bob Loux but still attacking Krolicki.
U.S. attorney general Eric Holder said an agency "should not withhold information simply because it may do so legally."
So rather then changing the FOIA law the U.S. Attorney General is says break the law
Fellow Idiots: What's the news. Now perhaps the jails and prisons will have a few extra cells for CriminalBush liars and torturers and war mongers by not making all those real easy arrests. For years the police have made all those easy nabs off the streets of small time sellers users who have no business being locked up other than the fact that the Ken Starr's of our country found out they have some power and enjoy exercising it against the weak, helpless and invalids, or a President who happened to have been given some oral sex in the White House by a woman not his wife. Too bad if there are those who don't like it. Now the cops can go after the big importers of heroin and coke and when (if) they make an arrest they can make the big deal out of it with a press meeting. The press meetings they call these days are to announce the arrests of a bunch of users or small time sellers anyone and anybody can nab anytime for no reason at all practically - shall I say minorities and Latins - yeap, that FIX NEWS reports as real progress and great advancement. Now they can get serious and do something to really help our country and Columbia and Mexico by getting the big boys like the cartels and off shore banks who can legally fence the cash. But, as we know, that can be dangerous so let's nab the little guy, right? Hey, the cops overall do a great job and thank God for 'em, but on the drug thing its yet another world out there. The people are getting a bit of a break an this White House release, but only a bit. As long as the Republican hatred and discrimination, tax cutting for the rich and the big corporations, wars, high interest rates on schoool loans, favors for lobbyists and arrssee kissing of Henry "TheLatin&IranianCoupMan" Kissinger we the people will still suffer hugely. When Democrats have taken over totally and completely we the people will finally get something back from the tax robbery we have suffered under LawrenceWelk Reagan (the real reason why he won the Presidential election is because the U.S. idiots thought he was Lawrence Welk and voted for him) and the CriminalBush, the torturer, war monger, liar and CIA outer, not to mention Katrina where his idiot mother said all the folks lined up at the SuperBowlDome in New Orleans after the great flood didn't have anything anyway so they're better off. Have we survived these idiots and Rove? So far, not yet, but with this pronoucement from the White House there is a beginning in favor of the people of this great nation. Now, tune out the racist hater Rush and then the true idiot and liar BeckHater and your days will be joyful and pleasant and free from arrest for that little joint in your briefs.
Wow......did they change the US Constitution overnight?
Is not the job of the Legislative branch to pass the laws and the Executive branch to enforce them?
Oh.....so now the Executive branch can just ignore laws.
Did not we hear libs whining about Bush for breaking the Constitution?
I guess now the shoe is on the other foot....HYPOCRITES.
Sun -- again, you missed the point entirely. This was one of Obama's campaign promises. Now AG Holder's taking credit for it as being "compassionate"?? What a joke. And you swallowed it.
And as part of the Fourth Estate I am ashamed of you announcing a knee-jerk opposition to marijuana. Marijuana is illegal ONLY because of propaganda by America's first drug czar, Harry Anslinger. Look at the real facts -- like the LaGuardia Commission Report -- and you'll see it has ALWAYS been far more beneficial than harmful, and has traditionally been nature's botanical gift to mankind. Otherwise why is growing hemp still illegal?
fosimmons is back with all of his hate. If you haven't read fosimmons, do so and you will get an education on who much hate is out there from the far left.
LarryVegas -- "hate"? More like a blunt, prejudiced, ignorant and misguided rant. You should reconsider your definition of that loaded word.
Legalize & regulate marijuana the same way we do alcohol & tobacco. The "War on Drugs" has been a dismal & costly failure, just as Prohibition was, and the sooner we change strategies and focus on the more serious threats the better off we'll be.
NLV-Indep13 -- good, except that it should never have been made illegal. Better to just repeal all the laws illegalizing it than to add more laws and bureaucracies. Otherwise we're back to the tail wagging the dog.
I have changed my mind...
I say legalize and control drugs... The far left will be so stoned that they won't know when and where to vote...
Just what we need: More high people driving around on the highway.
Marijuana impairs your ability to drive. Therefore, if we legalize marijuana, then we should also take away marijuana users' drivers licenses. Otherwise, the estimated 4% of DUI's attributed to drugs will shoot up like crazy.
Now the following statistic is just about alcohol: "In 2008, an estimated 11,773 people died in drunk driving crashes involving a driver with an illegal BAC (.08 or greater)." (Source: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration , Link at http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/811172...)
Cannabis users are twice more likely to develop schizophrenia than people who don't use marijuana: "Last year, Netherlands researchers reviewed five studies and concluded that the use of marijuana (cannabis) approximately doubles the risk of developing schizophrenia. Because the studies excluded anyone with a history of psychosis and controlled for the use of other drugs, they were 'able to show the specific effects of cannabis.'" (Source: "Studies link marijuana, schizophrenia", by Kimberly Read and Marica Purse, May 27, 2009, link at .http://bipolar.about.com/od/relateddisorders/a/schizo_pot.htm )
Apparently, in the Netherlands, it is illegal for ordinary citizens to carry guns; in the U.S.A, guns are a Constitutional right. Guns plus undiagnosed schizophrenia equals...trouble.
Yay pot"not.
ObservationDex - you missed the point, this article is about medical users. Some of us question why it's illegal at all.
Your other points about driving, etc., are mostly irrelevant. Any drug should be used with caution and responsibly, even aspirin.
The Netherlands is a monarchy, we're a republic. Here We the People are sovereign -- though it's fast becoming something else.
This is Sin City, we should be more "sinful". Marijuana was only made illegal because the temperance movement failed with alcohol and wanted to move onto the next best thing. We should legalize it and tax it in this city. Same goes for prostitution in this city. We can have a red light district and a green light district!
Also SgtRock, Obama is leaving enforcement up to the states instead of the federal government. In the same way that the government doesn't have FBI agents handing out traffic tickets, he is leaving enforcement of Marijuana law up to state police. A states rights to regulate drugs overrides federal law in this case.
KillerB, are you kidding me? The Netherlands was one of the first modern republics. The Monarchy of the Netherlands has no actual power and stands as a figurehead, the real power lay's with the Prime Minister and Parliament. If you want a REAL monarchy, go look at Saudi Arabia.
Krases -- no, I'm not kidding.
It's official name is "Koninkrijk der Nederlanden" -- "Kingdom of the Netherlands. It's still a constitutional monarchy, check it _ https://www.cia.gov/library/publications...
What matters is who's the sovereign. There it's the crown, even if it is a figurehead. Long way from our republican form of government.
municipal and state budgets are in the toilet so they are looking for new avenues of taxation. taxing the sale and manufacture of marijuana is one of the new ways of getting it done. vegas is the perfect place for marijuana consumption; instead of driving on the sidewalks they'll be floating over the traffic.
KillerB, from the very link you provided: "bicameral States General or Staten Generaal consists of the First Chamber or Eerste Kamer (75 seats; members indirectly elected by the country's 12 provincial councils to serve four-year terms) and the Second Chamber or Tweede Kamer (150 seats; members elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms)"
Everyone save fore the Queen is elected. The Queen serves as a figurehead. On one hand you are technically right that they are not a republic, but they act almost exactly like one in every way shape and form including the fact that the people are the real sovereigns seeing as they are the ones who direct government.