WASHINGTON, July 8 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Justice says state laws on medical marijuana opened the door to abuses and no one is outside federal marijuana laws.
In an e-mail memo to U.S. attorneys nationwide, the department called for legally targeting "large-scale, privately operated industrial marijuana cultivation centers" as well as distribution operations known as dispensaries, the Detroit Free Press reported Friday.
Such large-scale operators should be prosecuted and even smaller-scale users and distributors are not shielded from federal prosecution, "even where those activities purport to comply with state law," the memo, signed by U.S. Deputy Attorney General James Cole, said.
Medical marijuana advocates say the memo advocating tougher enforcement has left them feeling betrayed by the Obama administration, which in a 2009 memo had seemed to signal leniency towards medical marijuana users.
"This is an attack on the patient community," said Kristen Ford of the non-profit Americans for Safe Access.
Federal authorities are correcting a misreading of their stance, Prosecutor Art Cotter in Michigan's Berrien Country said.
Law enforcers and marijuana users alike misinterpreted the October 2009 memo that "seemed to suggest, 'Don't go after medical marijuana patients,'" Cotter said.
"People read into that the idea that, as long as something complied with state law, the feds would not get involved. Now, this new memo is saying, no, dispensaries and large grow operations are not immune from our prosecution," he said.
