Last week we had numerous federal laws that make possessing and distributing marijuana a crime. This week the laws are still there. Nothing's changed on that front.
What has changed is that our U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has directed federal prosecutors not to go after possessors and distributors of marijuana who are complying with state medical marijuana laws. He said, “It will not be a priority to use federal resources to prosecute patients with serious illnesses or their caregivers who are complying with state laws on medical marijuana, but we will not tolerate drug traffickers who hide behind claims of compliance with state law to mask activities that are clearly illegal.”
Seems fair enough, but I question whether the Justice Department's directive will go unchallenged by those who use and distribute marijuana for medicinal purposes in the 36 states where it is still illegal under state law.
Can the federal government choose not to enforce federal laws in selected states? Is there a requirement that the Justice Department apply the principles of justice evenly across all states? Could the lack of evenhandedness be grounds for a Supreme Court case? Did we just legalize marijuana?
Comments
"Can the federal government choose not to enforce federal laws in selected states?"
Well, they do it now. Prosecutorial discretion gives the prosecutor the opportunity to take to anyone to court that they believe will get a conviction. Judges are seeing the writing on the wall. If polls show upwards of 80% in agreement with medical marijuana and 50%+ for outright legalization then, yes, it's time to quit jailing someone for possession of cannabis.
Take Charles Lynch of the famous Morro Bay Dispensary Trial. Mr. Lynch was in complete compliance with state laws, a member of the BBB, had the Mayor at his opening. Everybody associated with this case stated that Mr. Lynch was in compliance with state law. Feds saw drugs, raided, and took medical records. Feds wanted 5 years. The judge tried to let him go. Feds persisted for the 5 year sentence. The judge gave him 1 year which is one year too many.
The only people that want to keep cannabis illegal are those profiting from it.
A closer look at those profiting from the continued illegality is in order.
Like it or not... GOD made POT!
It's about time. Especially since it is safer in all regards than alcohol and tobacco...
There is a culture that exists around marijuana that simply isn't there with any other legal or illegal substance.
The war on this plant is more of a cultural war than a government caring for its people. It needs to end.
Rev. Logos
Legalize it..How bout a little a more control over perscription drugs that actually have the potiential to ruin peoples lives.
Its a rediculous concept to make a plant in its pure form illegal.. Its like saying God made a mistake
B, by your logic, no one should be charged for murder by feeding their spouse arsenic. It's a natural substance, after all.
Why are politicians so stupid? They're too scared of their own shadow to take a position and stick to it. They're more worried about what voters and other politicians will think. Grow up and grow a set, politicians!!!! Where's my rocks? I'm gonna start throwing them.
By nearly universal accounts, marijuana is less harmful than tobacco and less impairing than alcohol. Legalization would save much neded law enforcement money and efforts and I suspect that this is one group of users that would welcome deficit-busting taxes over the stigma of illegality and black market profiting.
God I hope we can finally legalize pot. Marijuana prohibition has been far more detrimental to society then legal marijuana would be. In the privacy of their own home responsible adults should be allowed to purchase and use cannabis. You don't see people wandering the streets with a bottle of booze in their hand during the day, just like you won't see someone with a joint. If it is treated like alcohol then marijuana will do nothing but help hard working Americans relax after a long day.
To LawGuy - Wow... do people just eat arsenic to enjoy it? No, moron, people use marijuana to enjoy it... and it DOESN'T kill people like ONDCP and the tax payer funded anti-marijuana ads and touted for decades.
John, of course you are 100% correct. It's the pharmaceutical companies keeping weed illegal. Of all the pain meds available, weed actually carries the least amount of long & short term toxic problems on the body. Even Acetminicin (non aprin, can't spell it!) is dangerous and takes it toll.
And To B: That is a good way to phrase it: "It's like God made a mistake on this plant which is in it's purest form."
Pharmaceutical companies do not care about people. All they care about is the dollar amount.
I just wonder how much longer we will have to continue this argument about how much good can come out of this miracle plant.
Prohibition never works, did we not learn that during the speak-easy era? I am in my fifties and all of these years, drug use has gone up, not down.
We now have drug lord wars killing people on both sides of the boarder due to drug running. It has escalated since new laws took effect in our area, limiting cold medication due to meth labs. The number of meth addicts hasn't gone down, now it comes up from Mexico, and the cost has gone up, hence the rise in crime so the addicts can get the drug.
Imagine what the USA could do with all those billions of dollars that are now being spent trying to stop drugs which they know they can't win. That money should be used to fund national health care. Now imagine what we could do with the money that is raised by taxing pot etc. I smoked pot for most of my 20's, I made it to work everyday and performed my job without any problems. At the end of the day I could go home and relax. I quit because I went to work as a 911 Dispatcher.
Forget it. Weed is what it is. It brings in jobs. It brings business opportunity. Go to North Oakland. It has turned from the check cashing hood into a little Berkeley. It is not because Berkeley investors ran out of commercial property and started buying up buildings near the existing low-income housing, it is because pot shops and Oaksterdam University moved in. It's a nice place now, business has pushed the ghetto back a bit. Unfortunately, West and East Oakland are worse off. It ain't weed there though, it's crack, heroin, crank and unemployment.
We have better things to worry about in America than if some little kid smokes pot. For decades, teenagers have smoked pot. Has the world collapsed? Well, sort of, but not because of that. We need to let go of this irrational fear generated by the media hype of years past. The criminally deranged should no longer run the weed biz. Honest entrepreneurs can easily sew up the weed biz and have demonstrated this in places like North Oakland
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