Barbara Lee introduces legislation to stop federal assault on medical marijuana dispensaries

Barbara Lee Rep. Barbara Lee is fed up with of the federal government's efforts to shut down state-approved dispensaries of medical marijuana. She didn't label these efforts moronic, hurtful, counterproductive and wholly unacceptable. But she could have. Because that's exactly what they are. Just like the rest of the failed 40-year-old war on (some) drugs that annually gobbles billions of dollars in tax money trying to achieve the impossible while gravely damaging individuals and society, spreading corruption and vacuuming up resources desperately needed elsewhere.

Even in the byzantine world of drug-war politics, however, going after medical marijuana dispensaries seems extraordinarily nuts.

Last Friday Lee joined with eight other members of congress and introduced H.R. 6335. It's called the Medical Marijuana Property Rights Protection Act. If it passed, it would bar the use of  federal asset forfeiture laws to close legal marijuana dispensaries and "begin to align federal law to states' laws that allow for safe access to medical marijuana."

As a long-time supporter of the rights of patients to have safe and legal access to medicine that has been recommended to them by their doctors, this bill will provide clarification to California businesses and security for California patients. The people of California have made it legal for patients to have safe access to medicinal marijuana and, as a result, thousands of small business owners have invested millions of dollars in building their companies, creating jobs, and paying their taxes. We should be protecting and implementing the will of voters, not undermining our democracy by prosecuting small business owners who pay taxes and comply with the laws of their states in providing medicine to patients in need."

Chances of passage? Slim-to-none. But it is nevertheless heartening to see that some congresspeople view what is happening in this matter not only as harmful, wasteful and backward, but also hypocritical and the product of what some consider the Obama administration's broken promises. The administration, however, says those who expected nobody was going to be prosecuted for dispensing medical marijuana misinterpreted the Department of Justice memo on that subject.

(Continue reading below the fold.)