Victory for medical marijuana
Published:Tuesday | October 20, 2009 | 1:27 PM
Federal attorneys in the United States have been ordered to stop marijuana related prosecutions in the 13 states where the medical use of the drug is legal.
Hundreds of thousands of Americans use the drug to treat a series of medical conditions including glaucoma, arthritis and the side effects associated with cancer treatments like chemotherapy.
The Justice Department said it is wrong for federal resources to be spent on prosecuting people who were fully in compliance with existing state laws.
Ending the prosecutions had been a campaign promise of US President Barack Obama, and is a sharp shift away from the cannabis policies of the Bush Administration.