Could this year’s presidential election ease worries that have hindered New Mexico’s medical marijuana program?



New Mexico enacted a medical marijuana law last year. But the state Health Department has yet to implement the law’s provisions for a state-licensed production and distribution system because state officials have been concerned that state employees might face federal prosecution.



The San Francisco Chronicle reported today that the next president could put an end to such worries. Democratic front runner Barack Obama, in particular, "has become an increasingly firm advocate of ending federal intervention and letting states make their own rules when it comes to medical marijuana," the paper said:

 

At a November appearance in Audubon, Iowa, Obama recalled that his mother had died of cancer and said he saw no difference between doctor-prescribed morphine and marijuana as pain relievers. He said he would be open to allowing medical use of marijuana, if scientists and doctors concluded it was effective, but only under "strict guidelines," because he was "concerned about folks just kind of growing their own and saying it’s for medicinal purposes."

 

Obama went a step further in an interview in March with the Mail Tribune newspaper in Medford, Ore. While still expressing qualms about patients growing their own supply or getting it from "mom-and-pop stores," he said it is "entirely appropriate" for a state to legalize the medical use of marijuana, "with the same controls as other drugs prescribed by doctors."



Obama’s rival Hillary Clinton has been less firm on the issue but appears to take a softer stand than did her husband’s administration, which opposed California’s 1996 medical marijuana law, the first to legalize the drug for medical purposes. Likely Republican nominee John McCain, the Chronicle reports, has gone back and forth on the issue — at different times rejecting and endorsing the Bush Administration’s policy of federal raids and prosecutions.



New Mexico was 12th state to legalize marijuana as a pain medication for serious illnesses, but it’s the first one to call for a state-licensed production and distribution program. While the system has yet to be implemented, state officials are planning for it. Earlier this year, the state held a hearing on proposed rules for licensing, manufacturing and distributing medical pot. The Health Department, meanwhile, continues to certify patients as eligible to possess it without fear of state prosecution.