It really is time for someone to throw a bucket of cold water on the Drug Enforcement Agency. I know that, in the immortal words of Governor William J. LePetomaine, they are trying to protect their phony baloney jobs and all, but time marches on, and so do all of us, and theyreally should knock this stuffoff before they really start looking ridiculous.

The DEA's action has left some doctors, whose livelihoods depend on being able to offer patients pain medications and other drugs, with little option but to resign from the marijuana companies,where some held prominent positions. The Globe this week identified at least three doctors contacted by DEA investigators, although there may be more. "Here are your options," Dr. Samuel Mazza said he was told by Gregory Kelly, a DEA investigator from the agency's New England Division office. "You either give up your [DEA] license or give up your position on the board . . . or you challenge it in court." Mazza, chief executive of Debilitating Medical Conditions Treatment Centers, which won preliminary state approval to open a dispensary in Holyoke, said the DEA investigator's visit came shortly after state regulators announced the first 20 applicants approved for provisional licenses for medical marijuana dispensaries.

It's hard to determine whether this is a complete outrage because of what's actually happening to the doctors, or because of what an utter waste of time and taxpayer dollars this represents. I'm no states rights guy, but this is just stupid. Despite the best efforts of Maureen (Ms. Natural) Dowd, the country plainly is moving away from its wasteful and silly prohibition of the evil weed. Would it be that hard for Eric Holder to whistle up the DEA and say, look, dudes, how about not doing this part of your jobs for a while. (It's exactly what he did as regards marriage equality and the Defense Of Marriage Act. When the states started acting on their own, he declined to use DOMA to interfere.) These doctors are being asked to choose between their ability to prescribe drugs that help with the symptoms of, say MS, and their ability to prescribe marijuana for medicinal purposes. This is not a choice any physician should have to make -- and certainly not under the force of federal law -- and the DEA's meddling in medical practice is way outside its brief, and it is both clumsy and utterly inappropriate.

As much as it may pain our aging drug warriors, marijuana is being steadily mainstreamed as both a medicine and an avocation. It can be regulated. It can be labelled. It can be kept away from children as best we are capable of doing so. But we're not going back to 20-years-for-a-joint no matter what the DEA would prefer. The president should pull them back from this. He knows better.

Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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