A pending federal crackdown on Colorado medical marijuana patients and wellness providers will destroy livelihoods, hurt the economy and cost Colorado Springs and El Paso County precious new tax revenues.

The Obama administration is backing off its principled state rights approach to medical marijuana, just as it has abandoned other promises of hope and change.

Colorado voters amended the state constitution in 2000 to allow the buying, selling and use of medical marijuana.

Today thriving medical marijuana trade, which has freed patients from underground drug dealers, didn take off until Obama took office and directed Attorney General Eric Holder to announce new formal guidelines for federal prosecutors in medical marijuana states. An Oct. 19, 2009, memo by Deputy Attorney General David Ogden told United States attorneys that they not focus federal resources in states on individuals whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana.

In Colorado, the memo meant federal respect for Amendment 20, which allows the doctor-recommended use of marijuana for an assortment of medical conditions including pain. It allows for the , possession, production, use, or transportation of medical marijuana.

The memo represented a significant departure from the Bush administration refusal to acknowledge Amendment 20 and other state marijuana laws. It represented tangible change from a president who promised change.

Holder told reporters the new guideline was consistent with promises made by Obama during the campaign. One such promise would not have the Justice Department prosecuting and raiding medical marijuana users.

Forget the promises and the instruction to U.S. attorneys. Medical marijuana is going the way of the pledges to close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, to end aggressive foreign intervention and to undo abuses in the Patriot Act.

Colorado Attorney General John Suthers, who fights medical marijuana even though he pledged to uphold the state constitution, asked U.S. Attorney John Walsh to clarify the federal Justice Department position on medical marijuana after the state Legislature approved new regulations for the trade.

In a July 26 letter to Suthers, Walsh said the Justice Department plans to enforce federal marijuana laws on individuals and organizations that participate in the unlawful manufacturing and distribution activity involving marijuana, even if such activities are permitted under state law.

Dennis Burke, the U.S. attorney for Arizona, sent a memo warning Arizona state health officials about the state new medical marijuana act. He told Arizona officials of Justice Department plans to crush medical marijuana, despite the state law.

The letter says his office continue to vigorously prosecute individuals and organizations that participate in unlawful manufacturing, distribution and marketing activity involving marijuana, even if such activities are permitted under state law.

It a bait and switch that stands to devastate the lives of small-business owners, their employees, their investors and patients who trusted Obama and found a way off destructive, liver-rotting, hard-narcotic pain medications.

It a position that will only re-enrich and empower the criminal marijuana underground, which obeys no rules and pays no taxes.

It stands to eliminate a substantial new source of tax revenue that has been a godsend to cities and counties throughout the great recession.

With the potential demise of medical marijuana which Obama promised to protect it is impossible to distinguish this president from George W. Bush.