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OAKSTERDAM university, a self-proclaimed “cannabis college” in Oakland, California, has been called everything from “the Princeton of Pot” to “the Harvard of Hemp”. Its founder, Richard Lee, has become the public face of the movement to legitimise marijuana. A paraplegic, he uses the drug for medical purposes, which is legal in California and 15 other states and in the District of Columbia. He also runs a dispensary for medical marijuana and sponsored a 2010 ballot measure in California to legalise marijuana completely in small amounts, whether medicinal or recreational. That measure failed narrowly, but the idea of legalization continues to win converts.
奧克斯特丹大學自稱是加利福尼亞州奧克蘭市的“大麻學院”，也先后被人稱為“大麻罐的普林斯頓大學”和“大麻的哈佛大學”。它的創始人理查德•李在大麻合法化運動中已經是公眾最耳熟能詳的人。他是個截癱患者，需要用大麻來治療，這在加利福尼亞和其余15州，以及哥倫比亞特區是合法的。他同時也經營著一所藥用大麻的藥店，2010年在加利福尼亞州還發起了小劑量使用大麻合法化的投票統計運動，不管是用于醫學還是娛樂活動。這次統計幾乎失敗，但大麻合法化的觀念卻繼續贏得支持，人們紛紛改變立場。
Now, however, Mr Lee is busted, harassed and in danger of federal prosecution. This month, armed federal agents stormed into his house and offices to confiscate plants and documents. Mr Lee now says that, indicted or not, he plans to get out of his marijuana-related businesses.
然而現在理查德•李被逮捕了，還遭受了襲擊，更面臨著被聯邦起訴的危險。就在這個月全副武裝的聯邦特工闖入他的房子和辦公室，封掉了工廠，收繳了文件。不論是否會起訴自己，李說現在他都打算不再從事與大麻相關的生意。
The raids on his properties are only the most telegenic instances of a much wider federal crackdown that has taken states and counties by surprise. Dispensaries and even landlords of dispensary-operators, all over California, Colorado and Montana have been getting menacing letters. Many have closed shop. Growers and users are by turns livid and scared. Some have protested. Others have ducked back into the black market, as in the old days before medical marijuana was allowed.
查封理查德•李德財產是聯邦政府日益擴大的禁麻行動中最引人注目的做法，各州和市對這樣的行動感到奇怪。遍布于加利福尼亞、科羅倫多和蒙太納諸州的藥店，甚至是藥房的房東都收到了恐嚇信。很多藥店主關掉了藥店。大麻種植者和使用者怒氣沖沖后變得恐懼起來。有一些人抗議，而另一些人則轉向大麻的地下市場，如同回到了藥用大麻未被允許合法使用的歲月。
The question is why the federal government is doing this. On the one hand there is a federal law, the Controlled Substances Act, which recognises no exception for medical marijuana and thus considers all use and trade of it criminal. But on the other hand the Obama administration originally signalled that it would not deliberately clash with the states about weed. In the so-called Ogden memo of 2009, the Justice Department advised its lawyers to leave small-beer marijuana enforcement to the states and focus on graver crimes.
為什么聯邦政府會采取這樣的行動？一方面，聯邦法律《藥物控制條例》將藥用大麻列為監管項目，進而認定所有使用和買賣大麻行為違法。但另一方面奧巴馬政府原先表示不會有意在大麻問題上與各州不合。在2009年所謂的奧格登備忘錄中，司法部建議其法官們專注于更嚴重的犯罪，而將微不足道的大麻執法交與各州去執行。
