US urged to nullify states’ pot laws

Associated Press

CHICAGO

Eight former U.S. drug chiefs warned the federal government Tuesday that time is running out to nullify Colorado and Washington’s new laws legalizing recreational marijuana use, and a United Nations agency also urged challenges to the measures it says violate international treaties.

The former Drug Enforcement Administration chiefs criticized Barack Obama’s administration for moving too slowly to file a lawsuit that would force the states to rescind the legislation. Marijuana is illegal under federal law.

“My fear is that the Justice Department will do what they are doing now: do nothing and say nothing,” former DEA administrator Peter Bensinger told The Associated Press in an interview Monday. “If they don’t act now, these laws will be fully implemented in a matter of months.”

Bensinger, who lives in the Chicago area, said if the federal government doesn’t sue the states immediately, it will risk creating “a domino effect” in which other states legalize marijuana, too.

The statement from the DEA chiefs came the same day the International Narcotics Control Board, a U.N. agency, made its appeal in an annual drug report, calling on federal officials to act to “ensure full compliance with the international drug- control treaties on its entire territory.”

A lawyer who led Washington’s legalization campaign said the focus should be on reconciling the Colorado and Washington votes with federal law and treaty obligations.

“Ultimately, we do need to see these laws and treaties change,” Alison Holcomb said Tuesday. “We’re not going to get resolution overnight.”