California Attorney General Kamala Harris (D), often criticized by medical marijuana activists for not standing up for her state’s residents’ right to legal medi-pot, released a statement Thursday urging federal prosecutors to confine their recently announced crackdown on medicinal cannabis to those using Prop 215 to engage in high-level pot trafficking (presumably primarily to illegal, recreational users). Harris expressed concern that “an overly broad federal enforcement campaign will make it more difficult for legitimate patients to access physician-recommended medicine in California.” 
 
Despite the fact that the feds said they want to shut down dispensaries near schools and other areas involving children, on October 13, federal agents with weapons brandished [link|http://kymkemp.com/2011/10/13/campaign-of-terror-feds-raid-northstone-or...|raided Northstone Organics] a Mendocino collective that was in full compliance with all laws and is described as California’s most successful legally regulated medical cannabis cultivation program.
 
Furthermore, Harris opined that the inconsistencies in Prop 215, which legalized medical marijuana in California in 1996, must be amended either by the state legislature or the court system, not via federal prosecution. Harris is serving her first year as Attorney General and was previously the District Attorney for San Francisco for seven years, one of the leading medical marijuana centers in the Golden State, with over two-dozen dispensaries. Harris’s official statement was in response to media requests following the [link|http://hightimes.com/news/mmiller/7345|October 7 press conference by the four U.S. Attorneys for California] that announced plans for an escalated federal crackdown on medical marijuana.
 
Harris, along with virtually every other California elected official, has frustrated pot patients and reporters for nearly two weeks by refusing to comment on the press conference, [link|http://www.sfbg.com/politics/2011/10/12/why-are-harris-newsom-and-other-...| as this San Francisco Bay Guardian reporter described].
 
Now that the Attorney General for the nation’s most populous state and its most influential medi-pot state, has taken a stand against the federal crackdown, it will be interesting to see if the feds take her advice to heart in any way and focus on busting those truly abusing Prop 215 for personal gain and not shining examples of how to work within the law like Northstone Organics.
 
More @ [link|http://www.mcall.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-us-medical-marijuana-califo...|mcall.com]