Department of Pot

The city of Santa Cruz, California, is setting up an office charged with distributing marijuana to patients who use it for medical purposes. I'm not usually a fan of government-run enterprises, but this one is aimed at testing the authority of states to go their own way on drug policy, the most likely source of innovation in this area. In Gonzales v. Raich, relying on a bogus Commerce Clause rationale, the U.S. Supreme Court said patients who grow marijuana for their own medical use are subject to arrest by the federal government even though such cultivation is permitted by state law. But the Court did not address the criminal liability of state or local officials who handle marijuana under California's Compassionate Use Act. According to California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, "the federal government cannot enforce federal criminal laws against state officials who merely implement valid state law—or choose not to enforce federal law."