March 16, 2012 10:37 PM UTC

Boulder DA Ramps Up Medical Marijuana Pressure on Feds

• 5 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

Westword’s Michael Roberts:

This week, Boulder District Attorney Stan Garnett wrote a letter to U.S. Attorney John Walsh asking him not to send seizure threats to any Boulder medical marijuana dispensaries conforming to state and local land use regulations. When asked about the note, Walsh’s spokesman said his boss would respond directly to Garnett — the implication being that the U.S. Attorney wasn’t thrilled about this communique, on view below along with our earlier coverage, having been made public. But Garnett has no regrets.

“I’ve been in conversation with John’s office for quite a while about these issues,” he points out, referring to letters ordering dispensaries within 1,000 feet of schools to shut down by a certain date or risk having the feds take the property and everything on it. “And as I say in the letter, I have enormous respect for John. I think he’s a great prosecutor and a great guy, and he has a great staff. But I’ve also had a lot of discussions with municipal leadership in Boulder County, and they’ve been frustrated by the uncertainty of where they stand in regard to this issue. And since the U.S. Attorney’s Office has not hesitated to be quite public about its position, I thought it was appropriate to respond as I did on the issue, which I see as an issue of local control.”

​Regarding possible displeasure on the part of Walsh and company that he released his letter to the media, Garnett stresses that “his office is the one that’s decided this is a matter that needs to be played out in public. They’ve repeatedly talked about it and repeatedly threatened action against dispensaries. So I felt a public response was appropriate.”

The full letter from Boulder DA Stan Garnett follows. This is the latest example of official pushback from Colorado against federal efforts to crack down on our state’s tightly regulated medical marijuana problem, after Rep. Jared Polis’ repeated efforts to get federal authorities to clarify their intentions. While marijuana activists frequently end up doing their agenda more harm than good, officials are able to make a more reasoned case–or at least a case boosted by the heft of their offices. It will be interesting to see what U.S. Attorney John Walsh’s response to DA Garnett is, we suspect it might not be as casually dismissive as he is to, say, Rob Corry.