AG Holder plans to attack Californians despite pot referendum
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This has to be one of those of those “please don’t shit me general” stories. I am confused. Is George Bush still in the White House? Where did this come from?
What in the world is an “Eric Holder?” Is he a Jesus Jumper? A Krazy Kristian? I cannot imagine that he would attempt to overwhelm the will of California voters with his personal views on the use of cannabis. Well, here is the story so you tell me:
Attorney General Eric Holder has announced that the U.S. government will “vigorously enforce” federal law against marijuana if California voters elect to legalize the drug next month.
In a letter to former administrators of the DEA, Holder stated that the Department of Justice “strongly opposes Proposition 19.”
“If passed, this legislation will greatly complicate federal drug enforcement efforts to the detriment of our citizens,” Holder wrote. “Regardless of the passage of this or similar legislation, the Department of Justice will remain firmly committed to enforcing the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) in all states.”
The letter was released at a press conference Friday morning at the L.A. Sheriff’s Headquarters Bureau. Sheriff Lee Baca said that his deputies will work with federal authorities to continue to pursue marijuana violations even if Prop. 19 passes.District Attorney Steve Cooley, who is running for attorney general, said that if he is elected and Prop. 19 passes, he will likely advise law enforcement agencies that the initiative is unconstitutional.
In response, the Drug Policy Alliance, a pro-19 advocacy group, argued in a press release that the voters will get to decide state law.
“There is nothing in the United States Constitution that requires the state of California to criminalize anything under state law,” said Stephen Gutwillig, the group’s California director. “If California decides to legalize marijuana through the passage of Proposition 19, nothing in the Constitution stands in the way.”
While marijuana will continue to be illegal on the federal level, Gutwillig predicted that the U.S. government will not have the resources to pursue marijuana violations at the local level.
L.A. City Attorney Carmen Trutanich also appeared at the morning press conference, where he argued that Prop. 19 is “exactly what the cartels need.” In fact, according to a recent Rand Corp. study, Prop. 19 would drive Mexican cartels out of the California market, cutting into their profits by around 2-4 percent.
If the federal government does not take steps to prevent interstate smuggling, then California-grown pot could dominate the entire U.S. market, cutting cartel profits up to 23%.
On Thursday, Trutanich wrote a letter to U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte, asking the Department of Justice to seek an injunction to prevent Prop. 19 from going into effect. Trutanich also asked whether the federal government would withhold federal funding from the city for “any reason arising out of enactment of Proposition 19, such as for an alleged failure to meet our drug-free workplace obligations.”
In Holder’s letter, which is dated Wednesday, the attorney general does not go into such specifics. He does say, however, that the DOJ “is considering all available legal and policy options in the event Proposition 19 is enacted.”
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I’m from Arizona and this is the same tactic the gov’t used here. Believe it or not, a referendum was passed in AZ that stated that with TWO doctors signatures, MJ could be prescribed to patients in need, but then the feds stepped in and said they would arrest ANY doctor who wrote a prescription for medical marijuana. That was the end of that because no doctor wanted to be the first one arrested (nor the second one either) but Holder’s threat won’t work in CA as doctors are already prescribing it big time. I think Holder is going to come out of this with egg on his face.
I strongly suspect that this announcement has a lot to do with the midterm elections more than than it does with reality. If the DEA were going to go against MJ on a state level they would already be cracking down on the state laws regarding medicinal use and those laws minimizing the possession statutes. The democrats are taking a pounding over being too liberal.
I agree, it was an election tactic only. Politicians say a lot of things they can’t back up, or won’t. Talk is cheap especially in politics, yet people buy into it. I’ll never be able to figure that out; maybe because they see it on TV?
Oh put your pitch forks and torches down. Until federal law is changed nothing will change. If the growers would get a couple of lobbyists in DC then there’d be a chance. Personally I don’t care one way or another.
Notice, the DoJ didn’t jump in and overwhelm the will of the voters regarding civil rights for “teh gheyz”. It is all selective what these assboils want to fight and not fight as far as laws. So we can let a group of bigots tell us who we can and cannot marry, now we will have a court saying what we can and cannot put into our bodies. Fuck em(scuse ma fancy French) I’ll be the first one, if this gets passed, to go stand outside a police office and spark one up, to see if I am busted.
How many years has this mentality driven the badges to mess with peoples lives who do not deserve it. The problem men is that it’s not going to change but get worse.
These corrupt bastards can’t even have an intelligent conversation on industrial hemp the one plant that could help our country so much.
I am angry over this one.
Frustrating. Holder’s not a good guy. I don’t recall all the details, but he was the attorney who got Chiquita Banana Fruit Co executives off with a large fine in Colombia after they’d paid thugs to make labor trouble go away, and the thugs murdered over a hundred union workers.