It's your right to have it, seems to be the logic of the Obama administration toward patients in medical pot states; but we will arrest anyone who tries to supply it to you for cash.
Federal agents and police raided state-sanctioned medical marijuana dispensaries across western Washington on Tuesday, targeting storefronts deemed to be engaged in illegal drug trafficking and money laundering.
The dispensaries singled out by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration were essentially
operating under the state's medical marijuana law to conceal criminal activity, U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan said in a statement.
Federal officials did not immediately disclose the number of suppliers shut down in the sweep.
But the Cannabis Defense Coalition, a nonprofit advocacy group for marijuana, said on its website that 15 "medical cannabis access points" in at least six western Washington cities -- Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia, Puyallup, Lacey and Rochester -- were raided on Tuesday. A spokeswoman for Durkan's office, Emily Langlie, said one person was arrested by federal agents, and that additional arrests had been made by sheriff's deputies in separate raids across three counties although she could not say how many.
Washington could have had an even more liberalized system for medical pot, but for the threat of this sort of federal tyranny:
Tuesday's sweep marked the first major federal crackdown on pot shops in western Washington since Governor Christine Gregoire in April vetoed most provisions of a bill that would have established a new regulatory system for medical marijuana.
Gregoire has said she was swayed by a legal opinion from U.S. prosecutors threatening to target not only dispensary owners but state regulators who would enforce the proposed new law.
Federal prosecutors said they were not going after patients who have a legitimate medical need for pot.
"We will not prosecute truly ill people or their doctors who determine that marijuana is an appropriate medical treatment," Durkan said.
Old Reason blogging from Jacob Sullum on Washington state's attempts to liberalize their pot laws earlier this year. Jacob Sullum notes below that "rock you like a" Herman Cain at least for one brief, shining moment seems to think smarter about states and pot than President Obama.
