Medical Marijuana Raids in Colorado Raise Questions About Federal Forbearance

Federal agents, assisted by local police, staged the biggest crackdown on marijuana dispensaries in Colorado since the state legalized cannabis for medical use in 2000. The Denver Post reports that the raids hit more than a dozen dispensaries in the Denver area, plus businesses in Boulder and elsewhere.

Jeff Dorschner, a spokesman for John Walsh, the U.S. attorney for Colorado, said the operation "comports with the Department's recent guidance regarding marijuana enforcement matters." The August 29 memo to which Dorschner refers indicated that the feds would not interfere with marijuana businesses that comply with state law unless their activities implicated one or more of these eight "enforcement priorities": 1) "preventing the distribution of marijuana to minors," 2) "preventing the diversion of marijuana from states where it is legal under state law in some form to other states," 3) "preventing drugged driving and the exacerbation of other adverse public health consequences associated with marijuana use," 4) "preventing the growing of marijuana on public lands," 5) "preventing marijuana possession or use on federal property," 6) "preventing revenue from the sale of marijuana from going to criminal enterprises," 7) "preventing violence and the use of firearms in the cultivation and distribution of marijuana," and 8) "preventing state-authorized marijuana activity from being used as a cover or pretext for the trafficking of other illegal drugs."