Arizona Sues Justice Department Over Medical Pot

Arizona officials are taking the state's own medical marijuana law to court.

Attorney General Tom Horne late Friday sued the U.S. Justice Department and other defendants on behalf of the state and Gov. Jan Brewer.

The suit asks a federal judge to rule on whether strict compliance with the Arizona law provides protection from federal prosecution or whether the Arizona measure is pre-empted by federal law.

The state law approved by voters in November, like those in other states, decriminalizes distribution, possession and use of marijuana for medical purposes under specified circumstances.

However, the U.S. attorney for Arizona has reminded state officials that marijuana remains illegal under federal law.

Horne said the Arizona suit was intended get a court ruling "that makes it clear what direction we can safely go — either to implement the law or that we cannot."

The suit also named medical marijuana supporters, a group representing would-be dispensary operators and others as defendants in the case. Horne said they accepted invitations to be included in the case to ensure the state law gets a vigorous defense.

Brewer announced the planned lawsuit Tuesday, saying she's concerned that state employees could face federal prosecution for regulating the state program.

The governor and Horne, both Republicans, opposed the medical marijuana law but said they weren't trying to thwart the will of the voters. They said the lawsuit is specifically prompted by a May 2 letter in which U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke noted that marijuana remains illegal under federal law and that criminal prosecutors of traffickers and others are possible.

Burke's letter did not specifically mention state employees, but he said his office intends to prosecute individuals and organizations engaged in illegal manufacturing, distribution and marketing involving marijuana.

Burke did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday, but he told The Arizona Republic there had been no policy change.

"We have no intention of targeting or going after people who are implementing or who are in compliance with state law," Burke told the newspaper. "But at the same time, they can't be under the impression that they have immunity, amnesty or safe haven."

Horne said Burke's letter and similar letters sent by U.S. attorneys elsewhere raised the prospect of federal prosecutions related to medical marijuana, and he noted that a letter signed by U.S. attorneys in Washington state said state employees administering a medical marijuana program would not be immune from liability under a federal drug law.

Saying she was worried about federal prosecution of state workers, Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire vetoed key parts of a legislative measure to clarify her state's medical marijuana law.

Elsewhere, Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee has suspended plans to license three medical marijuana dispensaries after a U.S. attorney warned the dispensaries could be prosecuted for violating federal law.

In Montana, two medical marijuana providers sued the Justice Department on May 10 to challenge March 14 raids of their businesses. The lawsuit claimed the raids exceeded the federal government's authority, pre-empted Montana's medical marijuana law and violated the providers' civil rights.

A spokesman for a Washington-based medical marijuana advocacy group said the Arizona lawsuit won't accomplish anything because it won't change federal law or enforcement policies and because individual patients can grow their own marijuana.

"Gov. Jan Brewer is trying to hamstring this program," said Morgan Fox of the Marijuana Policy Project.

Between April 14 and Tuesday, Arizona approved 3,696 applications for patients to have and use medical marijuana, including 2,694 for growing up to 12 plants each. An additional 69 applications have been approved for caregivers, who can provide marijuana for up five patients other than themselves.

An application period for dispensaries is supposed to begin Wednesday, but Brewer is expected to direct the Department of Health Services to not proceed with that part of the program.

M. Ryan Hurley, a Scottsdale lawyer for would-be dispensary operators, said they're troubled because the state is not proceeding with full implementation of the law.

"They've invested a lot of time and effort and money in this process in reliance of the law," he said.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/05/28/136742081/ariz-takes-justice-dept-to-court-over-medical-pot?ft=1&f=1003

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Gunmen Kill Iraqi Chief Of Anti-Hussein Committee

The head of Iraq's effort to purge Saddam Hussein loyalists from the government was assassinated Thursday night. Ali al-Lami had led the Justice and Accountability Commission since 2004.

Iraq's al-Sumaria TV network reports that "unknown gunmen driving a Hyundai opened fire using muted weapons" and killed al-Lami in eastern Baghdad around 9 p.m. Thursday. He was accompanied only by his driver; al-Lami evidently had a long practice of not using bodyguards.

At al-Lami's funeral Friday, mourners blamed remnants of Hussein's Baath party for the killing, according to reports. But there have been no claims of responsibility for the attack as of yet.

Al-Lami was a divisive figure in Iraq, where his committee sought to bar hundreds of political candidates from seeking office in last year's parliamentary elections. Because many of those candidates were Sunni, al-Lami came under accusations that he was trying to tighten Shiites' hold on the government.

 

And in 2008, U.S. forces arrested al-Lami, saying he was implicated in a bombing attack that killed American personnel. As the AP reports:

"The top American military commander in Iraq at the time, Gen. Ray Odierno, said al-Lami and Ahmed Chalabi, also a committee member, were influenced by Iran and had attended meetings of the Shiite regime there."

On the al-Sumaria site's story about al-Lami's death, a commenter claiming to be the late official's son wrote that the arrest had been an attempt to force his father to implicate Chalabi. Al-Lami, who was detained for more than a year, maintained his innocence and was eventually released. The case was never fully resolved.

The al-Sumaria story ends with an enigmatic paragraph that suggests that al-Lami was suspicious that the U.S. government wanted him dead:

In a statement to Alsumarianews, Ali Allami accused the US Embassy in Baghdad of plotting to assassinate him and then blame it on Al Qaeda.

It's not clear when that "statement" was provided, or what may have prompted it.

By all accounts, al-Lami's controversial career angered many, from Hussein loyalists to U.S. officials and rival Shiites. The AP spoke to one of al-Lami's colleagues:

"The first suspect are the Baath Party members who are angry at his campaign against them," said Ali Mahmoud, a member of the Accountability and Justice Committees.

Police say their investigation of the killing is under way. And the attack is also part of a larger pattern of assassinations in Iraq.

For NPR, Isra al-Rubeii reports that "Although violence in Iraq has gone down from a peak in 2006 and 2007, the death of al-Lami is only part of an unabated wave of targeted killings against government and political figures."

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/05/27/136716496/gunmen-kill-iraqi-chief-of-anti-hussein-committee?ft=1&f=1004

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Family History: The General, His Sisters And Me

Gen. Vang Pao, an exiled leader from the Hmong hill tribe in communist Laos, was a CIA ally during the Vietnam War. Now, shortly after his death and six-day funeral in California, NPR's Doualy Xaykaothao ? Vang Pao's grandniece ? is delving into her family history. Who was Vang Pao, and what stories can his surviving sisters share?

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/05/27/133664172/family-history-the-general-his-sisters-and-me?ft=1&f=1057

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Kurt Vonnegut Turns Cinderella Into An Equation

Some people look at a sunset and see a sun setting. Others see the patterns of the sun rays, and everything around it ? they are pattern addicts; they can't stop finding the abstract in the particular.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2011/05/26/136578241/kurt-vonnegut-turns-cinderella-into-an-equation?ft=1&f=1057

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