The Department of Justice sent out a memo Wednesday instructing the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration and leading officials in the U.S. Attorneys Office to treat medical marijuana shops as top priorities for prosecutors and drug investigators."Persons who are in the business of cultivating, selling or distributing marijuana, and those who knowingly facilitate such activities, are in violation of the Controlled Substances Act, regardless of state law," the memo reads. "Consistent with resource constraints and the discretion you may exercise in your district, such persons are subject to federal enforcement action, including potential prosecution. State laws or local ordinances are not a defense to civil or criminal enforcement of federal law with respect to such conduct, including enforcement of the CSA."
The memo, authored by Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole, "clarifies" a memo released in 2009 that declared medical marijuana sales in states that have legalized it to be a low priority for law enforcement and prosecutors. The so-called "Ogden memo" first appeared to drug law reformers as evidence that President Obama was dialing back the war on drugs. The DEA and U.S. Attorneys office continued to raid and prosecute state-legal grow operations and marijuana shops after the memo was first circulated, leading reformers to conclude that Obama was lying when he said that his administration would not be doing those things.
Seriously? This is your top priority with the economy in the shitter, your ATF and DOJ doing gunwalker and you starting a 6th war in Somalia with drone strikes? Does he just realized he killed a large portion of is rabid fan base with this shit? As a person with a wife on the program and it has been the only pain killer that allows her to have some quality of life this just further pisses me off. These little consortiums aren't the enemy. They follow the state law, pay their taxes and then get the fucking black helicopter and SWAT team raiding their houses. They are mostly Obama supporters and feel very betrayed. To me this just seems like any sovereignty the states try to exude, whether this or thumbing your nose at the EPA leads to a massive crackdown by the Feds. I am starting to feel like the Colonists complaining about the Stamp act.