Were you under the impression that our new president had pretty much legalized medical marijuana by telling the feds to stop going after growers and sellers? Not quite!

The new attorney general did say that, in contrast to the Bush administration, the feds would now stop raiding medical marijuana distributors in states where it was legal. But for those who got caught up when Bush was still president, they're ass-out; one owner of a California dispensary just got sentenced to a year in jail on a conviction from last summer, even though the judge tried to find a way to let him go. Mandatory minimums!

"He is caught between California's voter-approved medical marijuana system and the Bush administration's single-minded effort to smother it," said Stephen Gutwillig of the Drug Policy Alliance, an organization that favors a change in drug policy. "That Attorney General Holder changed federal policy three months ago only makes this miscarriage of justice all the more disturbing. Charlie is like a forgotten prisoner of war, abandoned after a truce was declared."

Sucks, yes. Also the LA City Council has now closed the legal loophole that turned the entire city into one big weed spot. It's like living in Russia or something.
[Pic of still-oppressed individual via]