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Double-parking could land you 100 years behind bars

Dec 11, 2008

California, Conyers, DEA


U.S. House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) penned a letter to the DEA requesting answers about the agency's raids of and threats to California’s state-legal medical marijuana facilities. The letter, sent in April at the request of several concerned public officials in California, asked the DEA pointed questions regarding the cost of these raids and whether attacking medical marijuana providers was a sensible use of scarce resources.

The DEA has finally replied. And, as expected, the 17-page response is so full of outright lies and hyperbole that I could go on forever picking it apart. I don’t have time to criticize all of what deserves criticizing but I thought I’d share one of my favorite highlights.

In response to the question of whether or not conducting raids on medical marijuana providers is a good use of a federal agency’s time and money, the DEA argues that all marijuana use is illegal under the federal laws that it is obligated to enforce -- as if it has no room for discretion. If this were really the case, the DEA would be working around the clock cracking down on each and every petty drug user in the country.

An even more absurd justification for the DEA's despicable activities is that it's merely responding to community concerns about these facilities. The top three items on the list of complaints it has allegedly received are “people smoking marijuana outside,” “pedestrian and automobile traffic congesting the streets,” and “illegal parking.”

That’s right. The Department of Justice lists illegal parking and traffic among one of its highest public safety priorities! And all this under the direction of an administration that supposedly believes in states' rights and smaller government.

Another irony in all of this is that a recent report from the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure charges DEA agents with brazenly ignoring municipal parking ordinances and failing to pay the associated fines. (Thanks to my colleague and namesake, Aaron Houston, in D.C. for that little tidbit.)