Rep. Conyers Looking Forward To Revising Patriot Act

John DuBois, University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, said Tuesday that he looks forward to reworking aspects of the U.S. Patriot Act to make the legislation less “extreme.”

“We have a real opportunity before us to fix some of the most extreme provisions of that law and bring a better balance,” said Conyers during a markup of the USA PATRIOT Amendments Act, a piece of legislation concerning provisions in the original act that expire this year.

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) expressed concern with some aspects of the new act.

“The bill repeals the lone terrorist provision,” Smith said. “Once this provision expires, all al-Qaida will have to do is publicly disavow one if its members ... claiming that the target of an investigation is not affiliated with the terrorist group and intelligence officials will be prevented from conducting surveillance on that lone terrorist.”

New included provisions to the USA PATRIOT Amendments Act puts more control on the use of National Security Letters, a form of subpoenas that require no probable cause, to ensure people’s constitutional rights.

“Since 2005, I have introduced legislation to curb these abuses, to put some more controls on the use of NSLs and more judicial supervision on the gag orders to ensure people’s constitutional rights,” said Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.)

The Patriot Act was passed in 2001 with the intention of granting law-enforcement organizations more authority to investigate terrorism.

Justice Department Rolls Out New Medical Marijuana Policy

John DuBois, University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

A new policy introduced by the Obama administration Monday restricts the federal government's authority to prosecute medicinal marijuana patients and sanctioned suppliers. Instead, federal resources will be diverted toward apprehending larger criminal operations.

Mondays decision was praised by medical marijuana activists.

“This is an important step forward today. The federal government said, that they will respect state laws regards to medical marijuana," said Mike Meno, Assistant Director of Communication for the Marijuana Policy Project, an organization based on reforming existing marijuana laws. "We think this is great and more [reforms] should follow."

However, the responses to the decision have not all been optimistic. House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Lamar Smith (R-Texas) charged in a statement Monday that "the Administration is tacitly condoning the use of marijuana in the U.S." The statement goes on to read "If we want to win the war on drugs, federal prosecutors have a responsibility to investigate and prosecute all medical marijuana dispensaries and not just those that are merely fronts for illegal marijuana distribution."

The new policy states that those who use or provide marijuana without medical clearance will still be prosecuted. Fourteen states currently permit marijuana for medical use; Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.