Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara, on Thursday applauded the Obama administration’s reversal of a Bush administration policy that allowed raids on law-abiding medical-marijuana dispensaries. At a joint news conference Wednesday with new DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that ending federal medical marijuana raids “is now American policy.”

“This is a welcomed shift in our government’s policy and priorities,” Capps said in a statement. “For eight long years the Bush administration foolishly wasted precious federal resources to prosecute law-abiding health-care providers who humanely cared for their seriously ill patients by dispensing medical marijuana. I pleased that the new Obama administration has followed through on yet another promise candidate Obama made on the campaign trail.

“This new policy makes more sense and is far more humane. I am pleased with this important progress and anticipate more forward-thinking practices with regards to medical marijuana.”

Capps recently wrote to Holder requesting that he immediately suspend enforcement actions against property owners of law-abiding medical-marijuana dispensaries in California. She noted that the owners of several properties where dispensaries operate in her district have been threatened with legal action by the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, despite operating in compliance with local regulations, state law and state Attorney General Jerry Brown’s guidelines.

Emily Kryder is press secretary for Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara.