The federal crackdown on medical-marijuana dispensaries in California is wrong — a wrong policy and a wrong use of federal power to block social change. President Obama was supposed to be for change. He appointed a drug-policy adviser, Gil Kerlikowske, who announced that the War on Drugs was “over.” That was an exaggeration, but for medical marijuana it seemed to be so. Our political leaders, particularly our senators, representatives and governor, should push back. They have to tell the Obama people: Don’t do this.
Washington was one of the first three states to legalize medical marijuana, along with Oregon and California. All did it by popular vote. Over the past decade and a half, 16 states plus the District of Columbia have made this decision, 10 of them by popular vote. More such votes will be coming in 2012 — in Montana and possibly in Idaho, Ohio and other states.