Is It Time For Marijuana Legalization?

As many would say years ago, Pass the Joint!



Well it looks like advocates and supporters of programs to provide legal marijuana to patients with painful medical conditions are celebrating Attorney General Eric Holder’s statement this week that the Drug Enforcement Administration would end its raids on state-approved marijuana dispensaries. As reported by Megan Crepeau at the oregon live, Oregon's medical marijuana activists are buzzing over U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's statement this week that the federal government would no longer raid or prosecute medical marijuana dispensaries in states where they are legal."I'm just thrilled," said Paul Stanford, president of the Portland-based Hemp and Cannabis Foundation. "It means that patients can live free from a certain level of fear that they've been living with for years."More HERE



According to MSNBC Holder was asked about those raids Wednesday in Santa Ana, Calif., at a news conference that was called to announce the arrests of 755 people in a nationwide crackdown on the U.S. operations of Mexican drug cartels. He said such operations would no longer be conducted.

“What the president said during the campaign ... will be consistent with what we will be doing here in law enforcement,” he said. “What (Obama) said during the campaign ... is now American policy.”

The new policy represents a significant turnabout for the federal government. During the Bush administration, DEA agents shut down 30 to 40 marijuana dispensaries, the agency said.

According to MSNBC, The Web site of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy had yet to catch up to the policy shift as of Friday afternoon, and was still prominently featuring a “ Medical Marijuana Reality Check” declaring that “marijuana is not considered modern medicine” and arguing that “no animal or human data support the safety or efficacy of smoked marijuana for general medical use.”

Here is the list of thirteen states that allow the sale, distribution and use of marijuana for limited medical purposes:

• Alaska
• California
• Colorado
• Hawaii
• Maine
• Michigan
• Montana
• Nevada
• New Mexico
• Oregon
• Rhode Island
• Vermont
• Washington

AAPP: There are opposing views, however, I guess there will be many more states, and lots more people in pain, in the upcoming months and years. What do you think, should the Drug Enforcement Administration end it's raids on state-approved marijuana dispensaries ? Is it Time For Marijuana Legalization?