NORML: California Police Chiefs Asked DEA to Subvert California Law on Medical Marijuana

California NORML has released a remarkable 2006 letter that the California Police Chiefs Association apparently wrote to the DEA in 2006 asking that federal agency to arrest and prosecute California residents for activity related to medical marijuana. 

The letter (pdf), signed by Steve Krull, the then-president of the California Police Chiefs Association, laments the fact that "some [California] cities have determined that California law is what they want to follow," and asks for the DEA to intervene in California, using federal law, and "take these cases into the federal judicial system."  The purpose of doing this, the letter states, would be to "send a strong message to local and county government that 'medical marijuana' is not allowed."

(Above: An excerpt from the 2006 letter. Click to enlarge.)

This isn't the only evidence of California police chiefs actively fighting against reform to marijuana policies. In October of 2008, as the Detroit Free Press noted, Modesto Police Chief Roy Wasden and El Cerrito Police Chief Scott Kirkland, both of whom are on the Board of Directors of the Police Chiefs Association, flew out to Michigan in an unsuccessful attempt to persuade voters there to reject that state's medical marijuana initiative. These officials claimed that they had "watched supposed medical marijuana users leave distribution co-ops and selling marijuana to youngsters," and claimed that passage of a medical marijuana law in Michigan would create "increased crime and drug use in teens."

The 2006 letter, however, is remarkable both in urging the arrest and prosecution of Californians under federal law for actions that do not necessarily violate California state law and, in particular, for its desire to convince the public "that 'medical marijuana' is not allowed," notwithstanding the fact that California had had a medical marijuana law on the books for ten years at the time this letter was sent.