On Mar. 18, Attorney General Eric Holder said the Justice Department will not prosecute medical-marijuana dispensaries that are operating legally under state laws in California and the 12 other states that have permitted the use of marijuana for medical purposes.

Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for Thomas O'Brien, the U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, said the announcement reflects the status quo, in that the Justice Department already focused on those operating in violation of state law.

While the Obama administration deserves praise for taking a stand against federal prosecutions of medical-marijuana facilities, the DEA and U.S. Attorney’s Office must be given more direction to ensure that the federal government stops prosecuting not just dispensary owners, but those who grow marijuana for dispensaries and through collective cultivation projects.

When the U.S. Attorney’s Office, through their spokesman, suggested that Holder’s announcement reflects current policy, they were lying. While only a handful of medical-marijuana dispensaries have been prosecuted, many more have been raided; the federal government has stolen tons of medicine from dispensaries and from their patients. The federal government has also prosecuted medical-marijuana patients growing marijuana for themselves and for other patients. Moreover, the threat of federal prosecution and the proliferation of raids have resulted in a pandemonium among medical marijuana patients.

For medical-marijuana patients and dispensaries to truly be free from the threat of the federal government, the U.S. Attorney’s office and the DEA must be directed to not prosecute growers where there is evidence that the cultivation was done for the purpose of growing for a dispensary, or as a collective cultivation grow between patients.

The only way for this to happen is for Obama to appoint individuals to the DEA and U.S. Attorney’s office who will implement this policy on a case-by-case basis. Medical-marijuana patients and those who grow marijuana for them should be able to exercise their 10th amendment rights without fear of federal prosecution. Defendants in state court who have medical defenses should be able to call as witnesses dispensary owners without subjecting them to federal prosecution.

Beyond the change in policy, Congress and/or the U.S. Attorney General must act to reschedule marijuana. The Controlled Substances Act - the federal law regulating marijuana and other drugs - currently lists marijuana as a Schedule I substance, meaning that it has no medical use and cannot be prescribed.

Until U.S. Attorneys stop using federal agents to prosecute those in compliance with state law, medical-marijuana patients and those who provide for them will continue to operate in fear. Federal law mandates that those growing 100 plants or more face five years mandatory minimum in federal prison. Thirteen states have authorized marijuana for medical purposes; yet those who grow for these patients can and do go to federal prison for conduct their states have deemed legal. This has to stop. Not only do medical-marijuana patients suffer, society suffers. How can a citizenry respect the laws of their country when they prohibit the very conduct their states authorize?

This is not just a marijuana issue. The continued prosecution of dispensaries and medical-marijuana growers will erode respect for the law that distinguishes society from anarchy.

Blog by Allison Margolin

Allison Margolin is a criminal-defense attorney and Adjunct Professor of Law at West L.A .Law School

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