Por Michael Doyle |

WASHINGTON - una incursión reciente de la administración de la aplicación de la droga en un lago del sur Tahoe, California, dispensario médico de la marijuana showcases uno de los conflictos legales heredados por la administración de Obama.

El enero. la incursión 22 cerca de la frontera de California-Nevada ocurrió dos días después de que Obama tomó la oficina y antes de que propio equipo del departamento de la justicia del nuevo presidente estaba en lugar. La incursión se asemejó a muchos conducidos durante la administración de Bush, pero clashed aparentemente con la oposición de la campaña de Obama a tales táctica.

“Pienso el concepto básico en usar la marijuana médica para los mismos propósitos y con los mismos controles que otras drogas prescritas por los doctores (es) enteramente apropiados,” el periódico de Tribune del correo de Oregon dicho Obama en marcha. “No voy a utilizar recursos del departamento de la justicia para intentar evitar leyes del estado sobre esta edición.”

Ahora, citando el episodio de Tahoe, los activistas médicos de la marijuana y los libertarians civiles están impulsando Obama para congelar las incursiones futuras. Una cierta esperanza, también, que Obama invertirá una decisión de la administración de Bush y dejó la producción legal adicional de la marijuana ocurrir.

At the very least, activists and law enforcement officials alike are awaiting clarification about what’s changed in the world of medical marijuana. Esto podría tomar tiempo.

“We’re sympathetic to the fact the administration is just getting its feet on the ground,” Marijuana Policy Project spokesman Dan Bernath said on Thursday, “but this does show he needs to appoint folks who will respects his principles and policies.”

El sostenedor de Eric del Procurador General de la República candidato todavía no ha sido confirmado por el senado, y su diputado propuesto todavía no ha tenido una audiencia de confirmación. The phrase “medical marijuana” never came up during Holder’s extensive hearing, nor in the follow-up written questions asked by senators.

Obama tiene todavía nominar a un administrador permanente de DEA, aunque consideran un candidato potencial y sería la primera mujer al administrador temporario Michele Leonhart Africano-Americana para dirigir la agencia. Obama, likewise, has yet to nominate a new head of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

“El nuevo czar de la droga podría recomendar las políticas que son más restrictivas, o más clemente,” cuenta conocida Ruzzamenti, director del área de intensidad alta de los tráficos de droga del valle central en California.

Con el personal federal financiado en Sacramento y Fresno, los esfuerzos centrales del antidrug de los coordenadas del valle HIDTA en un área de 10 condados. It participated in a high-profile investigation into the California Healthcare Collective, a Modesto-based medical marijuana dispensary whose founders were sentenced last year to long prison terms on charges of running a criminal enterprise.

“The ones that are targeted are the ones making millions and millions of dollars,” Ruzzamenti said.

Federal agents during the past two years similarly have raided organizations in Bakersfield, Vallejo, San Mateo and other California cities. The most recent raid, on South Lake Tahoe’s Patient-to-Patient Collective, seized five to 10 pounds of marijuana and a small amount of cash, according to police reports. No arrests were made.

By one count, the DEA has raided more than 60 medical marijuana facilities nationwide during the past two years, including a July raid in Seattle in which agents seized hundreds of patient files. The ongoing raids underscore a running conflict between state and federal laws.

Through a 1996 ballot measure, approved by California voters with a 55 percent to 45 percent margin, patients can obtain medical marijuana with doctors’ permission. Ten other states, including Washington and Nevada, have followed California’s lead.

Several hundred marijuana dispensaries are now publicly listed by the California branch of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, with names such as High Flight Deliveries in Stockton, Mr. Purple Skunk in Modesto and Earth Meds in Tulare County.

These dispensaries, and their counterparts in other states, have been on thin ice following a 2005 Supreme Court ruling that empowered federal authorities to prosecute marijuana purveyors even in states that permit medical marijuana use. Bush’s drug czar, John Walters, championed such prosecutions.

Leonhart, a week before Bush left office, likewise took a hard line in issuing a 118-page decision rejecting a DEA administrative law judge’s recommendation to allow a University of Massachusetts researcher to grow higher-quality medicinal marijuana. The American Civil Liberties Union and medical marijuana proponents hope this last-minute rejection, coming two years after the judge issued a positive recommendation, is put on hold until Obama’s team is fully in place.