Medicinal cannabis

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A way out: A long time coming

In Canada the Supreme Court decided Canada Medical cannabis law was unconstitutional. The current law restricts any license grower to one license user and prohibits more than three growers from pooling their resource. The government has given Canada one year to have regulations that allow compassion clubs and growers to get together so the clubs can get cannabis from one common source (1 ).

President Obama said about arresting medicinal cannabis users "The Justice Department going after sick individuals using this as a palliative instead of going after serious criminals makes no sense," (2 ).

President Obama told the Southern Oregon's Mail Tribune editorial board on March 28, 2008 "I'm not going to be using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws on this issue. ". He was speaking on federal raids medical marijuana patients (3 ).

The New Czar Kerlikowske has shown a policy that is based on harm reduction. Joanna McKee co-founder and director of Green Cross Patient Co-Op an advocacy group for medical cannabis patients said about his appointment "What a blessing - the karma gods are smiling on the whole country, man.". Noting Kerlikowske knew the difference between responsible cannabis use and cracking down on illegal drug use (4 ).

The US AG Eric Holder said about the feds aiding in medical cannabis raids "What [President Obama] said during the campaign is now American policy," (5 ).

Then in Los Angeles California the US Attorney's ordered prosecutors to stop filing charges against medical cannabis dispensaries (6 ).

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder outlined was would be the new federal policy regarding medical cannabis "The policy is to go after those people who violate both federal and state law," and warned "use medical marijuana laws as a shield" would still face arrest. He concluded "Given the limited resources that we have, our focus will be on people - organizations that are growing, cultivating substantial amounts of marijuana and doing so in a way that's inconsistent with federal and state law," (7 ).

A few months later he renewed this pledge (Attorney General Eric Holder) he said, "It 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," and "But we will not tolerate drug traffickers who hide behind claims of compliance with state law to mask activities that are clearly illegal." (8 ).