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Rep. Lois Capps: Suspend Enforcement Actions against Medical-Marijuana Distributors

By Emily Kryder | February 24, 2009 | 8:43 p.m.

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Following media reports of Bush administration holdovers at the Drug Enforcement Agency continuing raids on medical marijuana dispensaries, Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara, has asked Attorney General Eric Holder to immediately suspend enforcement actions against law-abiding medical marijuana dispensaries in California.

In a statement Monday, Capps noted that several dispensaries 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. Capps also expressed concern that officials were undermining the express wishes of the new Obama administration by using precious federal resources to circumvent state medical marijuana laws and continue to prosecute law-abiding health-care providers who dispense medical marijuana.

“For eight long years the Bush administration wrongly wasted precious federal resources to prosecute law-abiding health-care providers who humanely cared for their seriously ill patients by dispensing medical marijuana,” Capps said. “I am hopeful that the new Obama administration and the change it will bring to the leadership at the Drug Enforcement Agency will lead to more forward-thinking practices with regards to medical marijuana.”

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

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