Eric Holder ends DEA raids on medical cannabis patients and facilities!

Buried near the end of a press conference covering arrests of the Sinaloa cartel, Eric Holder responded to a reporter’s question. He was asked if the DEA raids on California medical cannabis (marijuana) facilities just after President Obama took office would be the future policy, despite Obama’s campaign pledge to end the federal raids. The answer was refreshing and is a milestone in the endless War on Drugs.

Eric Holder just said “No.” He continued, “What the president said during the campaign, you’ll be surprised to know, will be consistent with what we’ll be doing in law enforcement. He was my boss during the campaign. He is formally and technically and by law my boss now. What he said during the campaign is now American policy.”

The Attorney General’s simple statement, elicited only by one half of a two part question twenty five minutes into a press conference, was far more important than the subject of the press conference, drug cartel arrests. With the DEA (acting) administrator MIchele Leonhart at his side, we can be certain his policy was heard by the DEA.

The specter of federal arrests and prosecutions has always loomed  for state-certified cannabis patients and care-givers in those states with laws allowing medical use (and growth) of cannabis.

Ironically, Eric Holder’s actions in lessening federal prohibition of cannabis may do far more to reduce the power of the Mexican cartels than all the enforcement actions he announced yesterday. Even though all of the Sinaloa cartel arrests were for drugs other than cannabis, some of their profits come from supplying the American market for marijuana. To the extent that the Attorney General’s new policy will reduce that demand by allowing medical supply in states like California, Oregon, Washington and New Mexico, the cartel’s profits will wane.

Congratulations to Barack Obama and Eric Holder for taking this small step towards medical freedom. No longer will medical consumers of cannabis, nor their state-licensed dispensaries, have to fear raids from squads of federal jack-boot thugs. With the end of this federal harassment, Americans have won back important freedoms long lost in the liberty-killing War on Drugs.

Thanks to Huffington Post’s Ryan Grim for spotting Holder’s remarkable statement.