In a recent article in The Nation, The Colorado Cannabis Factor, authors Alyson Martin and Nuhin Rashidian argue that cannabis advocacy in Colorado could determine the results of the presidential election.

Meanwhile, however, some cannabis advocates won’t admit that Obama is to blame for federal prosecutors’ actions or that the crackdowns defy the Ogden memo, which discouraged U.S. attorneys from interfering with state laws regarding medical marijuana. Says Alison Holcomb, drug policy director of the ACLU in Washington State:

“The people who think that Obama has let them down have read too 
much into the memo and have laid too much at the feet of the federal
a dministration. Each U.S. attorney may be acting independently. The
 federal prosecutor in eastern Washington has aggressively closed 
dispensaries while the one in the western part of the state left nearly 
100 open in and around Seattle.”

Holcomb, also the director of Washington’s flawed, pro-prosecution cannabis control
initiative 502, just doesn’t get it. The U.S. Department of Justice is 
directing a nationwide campaign against marijuana and patient access 
all over the country. The U.S. Attorneys didn’t all decide on their own 
to go after marijuana rather than corporate crooks; they got direction 
from Central Headquarters.

This explains why she produced an initiative with the help of 
prosecutors and former prosecutors and other prohibitionist types: She 
just doesn’t get it.

Holcomb is an embarrassment to the ACLU and to Civil Libertarians 
everywhere. Her actions show no common sense and no understanding 
of the true opposition. The criminal justice system is unwilling to
 give up the lucrative drug prohibition business. They sometimes make
 strategic retreats, but have never given up their goal of continuing
 prohibition.

Washingtonians deserve better – not worse. 502 continues the war.