I'm hearing a lot of discussion about this odd story from the LA Times:

The U.S. attorney in Los Angeles sent a confidential memo to prosecutors last week ordering them to stop filing charges against medical marijuana dispensaries, then abruptly lifted the ban on Friday, according to sources familiar with the developments.

So he initially orders everyone to completely back off of medical marijuana cases, then for unknown reasons, reverses course and tells prosecutors to proceed as they have in the past. It's creepy and plays right into the suspicions of those who thought the Feds wouldn’t back off without a fight.

Nonetheless, I'm leaning towards the assumption that the initial memo was just a little bit premature, but that we'll ultimately see a policy along those lines. I contacted Caren Woodson at Americans for Safe Access for a more informed analysis. Here's what she has to say:

I think it's confusion --- it's important to remember that we aren't even close to having the appropriate Obama officials seated at this point.  We expect, per the White House's comments, review of the policy as these people are formulating new policy. Keep in mind Deputy AG Ogden hasn't been sworn in yet.

At this point there has been no new movement; no new raids or new indictments. We are, however, still concerned about what becomes of the individuals still undergoing prosecution or waiting federal sentences... And I think that will require a deeper, more comprehensive discussion with the Obama Administration...once we have a better sense of who will be staying and who will not!

In other words, don’t freak out, at least not yet. The new administration has said the raids will end and that's what we're expecting.

National Review Online has a good point here. Obama's past drug use was rightfully declared off-limits during the campaign. Everyone on the left seemed to agree that was appropriate, so bludgeoning Limbaugh over his own drug use is lame.

You could make a decent argument that Limbaugh's behavior was more shocking (in light of this wildly hypocritical statement, for example), but that's really beside the point. The fact that past drug use is no longer a landmine on the campaign trail is an encouraging signal that our political culture has matured beyond the finger-wagging of the past. If we want it to stay that way, then there must be a bi-partisan truce when it comes to trashing someone's character for using drugs.

If you're actually discussing drug policy, that might be different, but just blatantly citing past drug use as evidence that someone's an asshole is not cool. This isn't about Rush Limbaugh, it's about moving beyond the "I didn't inhale" era so that we can have public discussions of drugs and drug policy that aren’t politicized and perverted to the point of absurdity.

Our friends at the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union have announced the winners of their drug policy video and poster contests, in preparation for next weeks UN international drug summit in Vienna. Click on the images below to check them out.