The giggles and munchies

As the Daily Dish's Chris Bodenner puts it, the deeply unserious line of questions shows the utter shallowness the press brings to what is a very serious public health issue.



And, just to ask it, just how dweebish were these blowdried "reporters" in high school?

No jokes

Paul Waldman has an encouraging piece on the growing support for decriminalizing marijuana possession. He also adds a postscript that is sadly necessary:

Postscript: You may have noticed that this was a column about the legal status of marijuana that contained no pot jokes. Unfortunately, many reporters (not to mention bloggers) who write about this topic can't help but start their pieces by saying something like, "Fire up the skull bong and get out your copy of 'Terrapin Station'" followed by a liberal sprinkling of puns about someone "blowing smoke" or gratuitous references to the munchies. Wouldn't it be nice if we could talk about this issue like adults?

Yes, yes it would.

"An epidemic of medical marijuana"

The problem, as The Lede commenter, Mac, writes, is not that young men in their 20s are suddenly hit with aches, pains, and depression, but rather that they have to "discover" these ailments in order to get a safe, secure supply of part of...a plant.

And this strikes me as odd. If states politicians are concerned about the need to suddenly regulate medical marijuana dispensaries (or else!), isn't that what taxes paid on regulated products are for.

Stopping the raids

More change we can believe in.

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Wednesday outlined a shift in the enforcement of federal drug laws, saying the administration would effectively end the Bush administration’s frequent raids on distributors of medical marijuana.

Speaking with reporters, Mr. Holder provided few specifics but said the Justice Department’s enforcement policy would now be restricted to traffickers who falsely masqueraded as medical dispensaries and “use medical marijuana laws as a shield.”

In the Bush administration, federal agents raided medical marijuana distributors that violated federal statutes even if the dispensaries appeared to be complying with state laws. The raids produced a flood of complaints, particularly in California, which in 1996 became the first state to legalize marijuana sales to people with doctors’ prescriptions.

Graham Boyd, the director of the American Civil Liberties Union drug law project, said Mr. Holder’s remarks created a reasonable balance between conflicting state and federal laws and “seem to finally end the policy war over medical marijuana.” He said officials in California and the 12 other states that have authorized the use of medical marijuana had hesitated to adopt regulations to carry out their laws because of uncertainty created by the Bush administration.

Mr. Holder said the new approach was consistent with statements made by President Obama in the campaign and was based on an assessment of how to allocate scarce enforcement resources. He said dispensaries operating in accord with California law would not be a priority for the administration.