DOJ Takes ACLU’s Lead on Pot Shops; Ignore the Law

Though it’s illegal under federal law to sell marijuana the Obama administration refuses to take action as pot shops open around the nation, including two in the District of Columbia not far from the U.S. Capitol.

This is making a mockery of the nation’s laws as the Department of Justice (DOJ) sits idly by while 18 states, along with the District of Columbia, have made “medical marijuana” legal. Some also allow recreational sales and more are expected to do the same. We can all see where this is going, a national movement to legalize the drug as the feds sit on their rump.

The fact remains that federal law prohibits it and therefore it’s a slap in the face to law and order that these illicit enterprises are surfacing around the country, especially in the area surrounding the U.S. government. A national news report (“Pot comes to Capitol Hill as U.S. marijuana movement blooms”) points out that two new pot businesses will operate in the shadow of Congress and will mark one of the boldest moves yet for the nation’s marijuana movement.

The first store will be located just steps from the U.S. Capitol and will offer a variety of services, including lessons on choosing the best way to ingest marijuana. “We need to teach them how to pick the best strain and how to pick the best way to ingest it,” the store’s general manager says in the news story. “Do you want to smoke it? Do you want to eat it? Are you going to roll a joint? Art you going to vaporize it? Are you going to put on your skin?”

Many different strains of marijuana will be available at the D.C. store, which will be called Metropolitan Wellness Center and will be located above a fast-food eatery, along with edibles, concentrates, dried cannabis and pot-laced drinks. The new center will also sell pot paraphernalia, according to the story. Perhaps some members of Congress or the DOJ, the agency responsible for enforcing federal laws, will come in for a smoke or a pot brownie.

Even liberals like President Jimmy Carter and former longtime U.S. Congressman Patrick Kennedy oppose legalizing marijuana for recreational use. In fact, Kennedy, son of the late Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy, runs an organization that advocates for a “fresh approach that neither legalizes, nor demonizes, marijuana.” Kennedy’s group claims to seek a “middle road between incarceration and legalization.”

But a more powerful force, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which has colluded with the Obama DOJ on other important matters, is pushing hard to legalize marijuana possession and use. In fact, in a recently published report the ACLU recommends “depenalizing marijuana use and possession by removing all related civil and criminal penalties.” The report actually focuses on the fact that marijuana laws are enforced in a racially biased manner against blacks, but it makes a strong case for legalizing the drug for all races. 

Could this be why the Obama administration is ignoring marijuana violations nationwide, including those within a stone’s throw of the DOJ headquarters? We’ve seen the ACLU team up with the Obama DOJ on other important issues in recent years, especially those related to immigration and voter identification laws.  

In fact, Judicial Watch obtained records from the DOJ that show the agency worked hand-in-hand with the ACLU in mounting their respective legal challenges to Arizona’s law to control illegal immigration. Last summer JW sued the DOJ for records that were supposed to be turned over under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) detailing the agency’s communications with the ACLU regarding Pennsylvania’s voter ID law.

The ACLU has also called the shots at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), getting the agency to reverse the deportation illegal immigrants on the verge of being removed. It happened in the case of a California farm worker in removal proceedings after getting arrested by local police and another arrested in a domestic violence dispute. In both cases the ACLU intervened and got the DHS to do an abrupt about face.