The Ambiguous New World of Pot Laws

While the prohibition of marijuana has been a complete fiasco, the push for its legalization isn't a black-or-white fight. Marijuana won't become legal overnight. But with each leap forward on legalization or access to medicinal marijuana comes a broad brushstroke of gray.

Right now, states are feeling their way forward in this new world of laws and tangled state and federal policy. It appears nobody has a grasp yet on a complete solution. But the District of Columbia, which plans to begin allowing legal use of medicinal marijuana, is looking to the experiences of other states to lead the way. To get an idea of how policies in the nation's 14 medical marijuana states compare, check out this chart produced by the Washington Post last week.

On closer inspection, the laws start to look like a legally ambiguous maze. In California for example, for seven years, state law directed that medicinal marijuana patients could possess up to eight ounces of the drug. But in January, the state Supreme Court overturned that law, saying medicinal patients have a right to a "reasonable amount" of pot. Now, police are unclear on what law to enforce and prosecutors are tossing cases that may not meet the "reasonable amount" standard. Advocates from both sides of this debate are calling for a bright line on the amount of pot medicinal patients can hold. (And the state's voters will decide on full legalization in November.)

Cities, meanwhile are fighting to regulate state law on medicinal marijuana. Los Angeles has struggled to control unregistered medicinal pot dispensaries. Last week, the city council approved a fee structure for dispensaries, which could bring some clarity to the situation there. But every city is different, and the patchwork leaves some medicinal users and distributors unsure of how to legally proceed.

Colorado has seen a medicinal pot boom since the state began allowing the therapeutic drug in 2000, but the federal government doesn't exactly see the growth of the state's industry as a good thing. Despite a directive from President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder to federal agents not to raid dispensaries or other legal facilities under state laws, DEA agents have continued to raid marijuana production facilities in Colorado. Colorado lawmakers wrote to the feds this month urging them to stop the raids so state lawmakers and police could untangle the new laws.

There's no question which way the wind is blowing on marijuana policy, and we should all do everything we can to end the destructive laws surrounding a substance that should be controlled like alcohol. But even assuming legal pot continues to gain steam and eventually becomes the law of the land, the transition from illegal narcotic to controlled consumer product won't be smooth.

Photo Credit: indi.ca