The "Practical part of the new 2257 Regs!

Regarding the analogy between 2257 enforcement and Med Marijuana enforcement, this came from today's SF Chronicle:

Medical pot users say they won't stop
Legal impact: Consensus is enforcement won't increase

Joe Garofoli, Greg Lucas, Rachel Gordon, Chronicle Staff Writers
Tuesday, June 7, 2005

Medical marijuana advocates don't often see eye-to-eye with drug prosecutors, but they agreed Monday that the Supreme Court decision allowing the federal government to prosecute cannabis patients is unlikely to lead to an abrupt change in law enforcement.

"The DEA (federal Drug Enforcement Administration) could come in any time before and mess with the patients, and they can do that now," said Mike Barnes, a Hayward resident who is a leader of the statewide Medical Cannabis Association and has consulted with a cannabis club in Hayward.

"If the DEA is going to raid you, they were going to raid you before this (ruling)," he said. "The only people who will be intimidated are people who don't understand (the ruling)."

Bay Area medical marijuana advocates -- particularly in San Francisco - - said local law enforcement agencies generally leave them alone.

"Local police are generally very aware, at least in this area, that this is not a big joke," said Jane Weirick, who managed a medical pot club in San Francisco several years ago and has consulted for three dozen other club owners across California, helping them adapt to local ordinances.

Some federal law enforcement officials agreed that the ruling shouldn't alter reality much for medical marijuana users.

"The reality is, we don't have the time or resources to do anything other than going after large-scale traffickers and large-scale growers," said McGregor Scott, the U.S. attorney for the state's eastern district in Sacramento. "We have had cases where there have been claims of medical marijuana, but they involved hundreds and hundreds of plants -- not somebody growing a couple plants in their back yard."