Word: states
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Justice Department announced that federal prosecutors would not pursue medical-marijuana users and distributors who comply with state laws, formalizing a policy at which the Obama Administration hinted earlier this year. Currently, 13 states allow doctors to prescribe medical marijuana to patients suffering from ailments ranging from AIDS to glaucoma, and in Maryland a prescription can soften punishment if a user faces prosecution. But until now those laws didn't provide any protection from federal authorities. (Read "Can Marijuana Help Rescue California's Economy...
Despite an easing of marijuana laws in the 1970s, the Reagan Administration's get-tough drug policies the following decade applied to marijuana as well. Still, the long-term trend has been toward relaxation. Since California became the first state to legalize medical marijuana in 1996, a dozen states have followed. Critics say the legalization of medical marijuana has sparked an underground pot culture in states that sanction its use - Los Angeles County district attorney Steve Cooley has estimated that there are about 1,000 illegally operated marijuana shops in that city alone. And although the Justice Department's newly...
...collective sigh of relief - or was that the long exhale of bong hits? - no doubt followed Monday's announcement from Attorney General Eric Holder that federal prosecutors will not go after medical-marijuana users who abide by state laws governing the drug's use for legitimate treatment purposes. (See pictures of cannabis culture...
...will not be a priority to use federal resources to prosecute patients with serious illnesses or their caregivers who are complying with state laws on medical marijuana," Holder said in a statement accompanying the release of the new policy guidelines...
...clear that the department would not turn a blind eye to those who use medical-marijuana laws as a fig leaf for illegal use, saying that traffickers exploiting the laws should still expect to be pursued. "We will not tolerate drug traffickers who hide behind claims of compliance with state law to mask activities that are clearly illegal," Holder said. (See pictures of the great American pot smoke...