Another victim in the war on drugs: States Rights
The feds have raided marijuana facilities in California, some of which produce the drug for medical purposes in compliance with state law. I thought Republican administrations were supposed to be about the federalism?
January 19th, 2007 at 10:33 am
We can’t worry about pesky “states rights” when it comes to the scourge of Marijuana. If it weren’t for the Feds raiding that facility, countless Chemotherapy patients might have had an attack of the munchies.
January 19th, 2007 at 11:27 am
The Feds passed a law, letting states deputize people so they would be immune from prosecution. The idea was that then those deputies would make the undercover buys so they could make the busts ‘n stuff.
The current war on California is fall out from this, because cities in the fruit loop state turned the law on it’s ass and deputized those dispensing medical marijuana.
Ed Rosenthal was one of those Deputies. Federal law should have given him immunity, but when he had his *cough* “Day In Court”, the judge suppressed all that pesky evidence.
The court system is broken. horribly broken.
http://green-aid.com/press.htm
Remember kids, that stuff in teh dope, THC is deadly poison. That’s why your ever-loving Uncle Sam has put this substance on Schedule I, which means it has no redeeming purpose at all in medicine.
However, when we mix that very same THC with the magical substance Sesame Seed oil, it transforms that deadly poison in to useful, patentable, profitable medicine.
Because we have Marinol, there is no need to grow that harmful, un-patentable medical marijuana. Indeed, the Feds ought to don teh ninja gear, grab the flash bangs, and enforce the patent for Unimed Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
(although as a rule, I generally can’t fracking stand the damn dopers, really they’re mostly harmless)
January 19th, 2007 at 5:13 pm
I thought Republican administrations were supposed to be about the federalism?
Not when “morality” is at stake.
January 19th, 2007 at 9:52 pm
“I thought Republican administrations were supposed to be about the federalism?”
Not when it comes to drugs… Hmm… Drugs are bad. M’kay???
January 20th, 2007 at 8:38 pm
I gotta part with you on this one (on “states rights” and federalism, not on whether mj should be legal).
First off, and just a bit off-topic, I get a bit irritated with the term “states rights”. States do not have rights. People have rights. States have powers, just as the federal government has powers.
Second, states do not have the power to ignore or overrule the federal law. If marijuana is illegal under federal law, states do not have the power to legalize it for any reason.
The problem, of course, is this: Whether or not the federal government has the constitutional power to make that law. That’s where the real problem is. I think you (and many others) are correct that the federal drug laws are an unconstitutional misuse of the Commerce Clause.
Unfortunately, according to the Supreme Court, the federal law has been declared constitutional, meaning that the Commerce Clause has been expanded to encompass pretty much anything. So like it or not, what the DEA did appears to be perfectly legal under federal law, and the real beef is not with them, nor with “Republican administrations”, but with the Congress and the Supremes.