The Ogden Memo and the Cole Memo: How the admin flipped on Medical Marijuana

Just a reminder.

07/01/11 07:11 PM ET

Medical marijuana advocates are pushing back against a new Justice Department threat to raid and prosecute medical pot shops even in states where the drug is legal.

During the 2008 campaign, Obama promised to end such raids, which were commonplace under the Bush administration. Once he took office, the Justice Department, citing that campaign pledge, issued a memo that instructed federal law enforcement officials to back off. If a person was in compliance with state and local laws, the memo instructed, just let them be.

The new memo, from Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole, purports to provide "guidance" on the previous memo, but reads more like a warning shot to medical marijuana shops. The previous memo, Cole writes, "advised that it is likely not an efficient use of federal resources to focus enforcement efforts on individuals with cancer or other serious illnesses who use marijuana as part of a recommended treatment regimen consistent with applicable state law, or their caregivers."

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Cole's characterization of his new memo as a simple clarification of the original one downplays the radical departure it represents. The original memo clearly attempted to distinguish between pot shops that operated within state laws and those that bent or broke them. "[P]rosecution of individuals with cancer or other serious illnesses who use marijuana as part of a recommended treatment regimen consistent with applicable state law, or those caregivers in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state law who provide such individuals with marijuana, is unlikely to be an efficient use of limited federal resources," the landmark 2009 memo read. "On the other hand, prosecution of commercial enterprises that unlawfully market and sell marijuana for profit continues to be an enforcement priority of the Department."

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/01/medical-marijuana-memo-doj_n_888995.html