ShareThisMarijuana smokers might be breathing a little easier thanks to a policy switch by the U.S. Justice Department. Attorney General Eric Holder announced that federal prosecutors would not spend limited time and resources on people who use or sell medical marijuana "in strict compliance with state law." Thirteen states have medical marijuana laws, which are controversial because federal narcotics laws trump state statutes.
Of course, the new federal policy doesn't prevent local prosecutors from cracking down on medical marijuana dispensaries. Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley has vowed to shutter the city's dispensaries, which he says cater to people who do not have legitimate medical reasons for using marijuana.
Is the Justice Department paving the way for legalizing marijuana? And is it crazy to think the Obama administration is more federalist -- that is, respectful of state and local government decision-making -- than the supposedly federalism-loving Republicans? Joel Mathis and Ben Boychuk, the RedBlueAmerica columnists, attempt to cut through the haze.
BEN BOYCHUK
All things being equal, the states are probably better arbiters than federal officials of whether marijuana should be illegal. The fact that the Obama Justice Department believes federal resources are better spent elsewhere speaks volumes. But marijuana remains outlawed under the federal Narcotics Act, .
But whether marijuana should be legalized raises a whole host of questions. Here's one: Should medical marijuana use be protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act? The ADA requires employers to make reasonable accommodations for workers with disabilities, including ailments such as alcoholism and drug addiction. (See the U.S. government's frequently asked questions about the ADA here: http://www.ada.gov/employmt.htm)
The ADA has been a boon for trial lawyers and irresponsible users and abusers. A former sheriff's deputy in Sarasota, Fla., last month sued his employer for discrimination under the ADA because he was let go for excessive alcohol use. Earlier this year, former NBA player Ray Tarpley settled an ADA lawsuit against the pro basketball league and the Dallas Mavericks that stemmed from his cocaine addiction. Two alcoholic NFL players filed similar lawsuits in 2007.
Without question, marijuana helps thousands of people suffering chronic illnesses. The rub is that many critics of medical marijuana, including most district attorneys, say the laws are widely abused; that it's too easy for stoners to get a doctor's note for pot; and that many of the "illnesses" that marijuana treats are bogus. It isn't hard to imagine a raft of lawsuits against employers by potheads claiming phony disabilities.
If Americans want to ease the prohibitions on marijuana, Congress will need to act and legislators will need to debate what's right for their states. But if the trend is toward decriminalization, it should come with a hefty dose of personal responsibility and protections for employers from unscrupulous users.
JOEL MATHIS
Actually, Americans do want ease prohibitions on medical marijuana. They've wanted it for a long time.
The website of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws has a page featuring a slew of polls -- going back to 1995 -- showing that clear majorities of Americans believe it should be legal for doctors to prescribe and patients to use marijuana for medicinal purposes. NORML admittedly has a bias, but the polls come from a variety of outlets: Gallup, AARP, CBS, ABC, Time magazine and more.
Yet Congress has refused to act; despite those clear majorities, politicians at the federal level are too fearful about their re-election prospects to ever support legislation that might later be used to portray them as "soft on crime" or "soft on drugs."
So activists took their case to the state level -- and that's entirely appropriate. The states have long been considered "laboratories of democracy" where different approaches to similar issues could be tried. And that's exactly what happened: Thirteen states now permit medical marijuana. That means, of course, that 37 states do not. Nothing in the Obama administration's new approach will force those more restrictive states to take the relaxed approach.
You can argue the Obama administration should continue to rigorously enforce federal drug laws. But given that citizens in those 13 states have made their preferences clear, the administration is probably wise to give them deference.
"What about the ADA?" my conservative friend asks. Well, what about it? The Americans with Disabilities Act is a federal law; as long as actual legalization of medical marijuana is done at the state level, federal lawsuits by a few stoned chuckleheads seeking to enrich themselves through the legal system are unlikely to be successful. When weighing the balance between real freedom and a hypothetical fear of lawsuits, freedom should win.
Ben Boychuk and Joel Mathis blog at http://www.infinitemonkeysblog.com and http://politics.pwblogs.com.
(Ben Boychuk and Joel Mathis blog daily at www.infinitemonkeysblog.com and joelmathis.blogspot.com.)
There's no doubt
Americans want change in this FAILED 'War on Drugs.'
With 26 MILLION Americans using cannabis in the last 12 months alone, and only 3 million (already occupied) prison beds in the country, WHERE does the DEA propose we house them all? And who gets to PAY for their three hots and a cot?
I certainly don't want to. And I'm tired of the DEA and ONDCP running around arresting nearly a million non-violent users a year!
They clog our courts, they clog our prisons, and we spend BILLIONS every year doing it!
After FOUR DECADES, isn't there some sort of self-assessment process they have to go through?
Ok, how many cities are clean? ZERO
How many states are clean? ZERO
How many people have been 'saved' from drugs? ZERO
How many people have been prevented from getting drugs? ZERO
How much progress has been made? ZERO
How many kids have trouble getting drugs vs alcohol? ZERO
The black market CREATED by the 'War on Drugs' will never check your kids ID before selling him dope.
The DEA and ONDCP are detrimental to this country. Admirable goals, but utterly ineffective, expensive, and simply incapable of doing the job they're supposed to.
Imagine they'll ever admit it? Nope, because then none of them would have jobs.
ahmen
ahmen
Is the Justice Department paving the way for legalizing...
Remember kids, Creator made man, man made religion and religion made the drug war, so don't blame Creator because of man's religious mandates, which is of course and always has been to legislate morality.
Well-said, Demmi. I, for
Well-said, Demmi. I, for one, have been diagnosed with schizophrenia, psychosis, narcissism, and emotional displacement. The medications from the pharmaceutical industry were both expensive, and did the opposite of what I really needed: to clear my mind up. Instead, the pharmaceuticals buried my thoughts under a mental haze. Marijuana, on the other hand, opened my thinking up so I could resolve the mental issues by allowing my brain to do what it's made to do: think. Marijuana is the exact opposite of an anti-psychotic. I'd call it a pro-psychotic, in fact, and it pulled me THROUGH psychosis, instead of mitigating it and keeping it buried like a jack-in-the-box, ready to spring through the pharmaceutically-medicated haze at any moment, as news stories of some people on various medications demonstrates: people who are on medications suddenly going nuts and killing people. I believe marijuana would prevent a lot of that from happening, if it could be consumed without the air of prohibition and punishment surrounding it, which only serves to increase the sense of paranoia that comes with doing something "forbidden".
Damaeus
couldn't agree more
Thank you for speaking up in defense of marijuana as effective medicine, I have also gotten much help from this herb and know lots of others who have as well. In fact, not sure if you already knew this, but recently a psychiatrist testified before Congress stating that marijuana is extremely safe and effective for the treatment of ADD and ADHD in adolescents--the only problem is the false stigma which they receive from other students and teachers who have been brainwashed by the drug warriors hiding behind scare tactics and distorted "statistics."
How much longer must we foot the bill for these lies while people are denied the medicine which can help them the most?! Is there any actual way to get some accountability out of Congress, or do we have to physically take the power back from them at this point?
Re: couldn't agree more
When I see legalization efforts geared for "adults only", I actually cringe, because I believe marijuana is good for children, too. Even human breast milk, I've heard, has some cannabinoids in it, naturally produced by the mother, whether she smokes pot or not. For me, marijuana is not a "party drug", but a beneficial herb that I see as nourishment for the human brain.
As I see it, humans have used cannabis for thousands, or even tens of thousands of years. Evolution has provided us with genetically-endowed mechanisms for utilizing marijuana to our benefit. And, people are starved for marijuana and don't even know it. Prohibition has forbidden an herb that was used freely before prohibition, and that creates an artificial extinction of a plant that was used for such a long period of time.
I see the lack of marijuana as causing "mental gridlock", marijuana starvation, in the descendants of humans who developed the genetics to utilize the herb.
Damaeus
Really?
"federal narcotics laws trump state statutes"
Not according to the ninth and tenth amendments...
The people run the states, the states run the feds. The people give the state the power the state has, the states give the feds the power they have. Not the other way around.
Federal marijuana laws are as unconstitutional as alcohol prohibition would have been if there hadn't been a constitutional amendment prohibiting it.
Why was alcohol prohibition ended? Because it caused more harm than the alcohol consumption did.
Marijuana is safer than alcohol, so why do we drive people to drink? Marijuana is the safer choice! (see saferchoice.org)
I am a 42 year old adult, if you can trust me with an unlimited quantity of alcohol, and self regulation, why is it you can't trust me with marijuana consumption? The only law I ever break is the anti marijuana laws. I'm productive, I haven't moved on to any harder substances in over a decade of use and have no intention to, I have even reduced my alcohol consumption to almost nil (maybe a 6 pack per year).
In light of alcohol, I really don't see the problem with marijuana.
Why do you?
Would you give up your booze because of a few irresponsible drinkers? I doubt it. Anyone who has never used marijuana who has a negative opinion of it and who also drinks booze is a hypocrite, pure and simple.
Peace and Love,
Rev. Logos
Marijuana Policy
Legalize marijuana and get over the reefer madness!
Prohibition adds a lot of crime, violence and other problems we wouldn't have with regulation!
No one in history has ever died from the ingredients in marijuana.
You have far more dangerous substances under your kitchen sink and in your garage and no one is trying to prohibit them.
Your kid could smoke fatties until he turned into one and it still wouldn't kill him... (not that anyone is suggesting kids should smoke anything)
How many medical marijuana dispensaries do we need
Do a search on www.weedneedz.com and you'll see tons of medical marijuana dispensaries all over Los Angeles and Oakland - at what point do we say we have enough? It's starting to look like Starbucks, with dispensaries opening up across the street from other dispensaries.
And so what if there are as many dispensaries as Starbucks?
Caffeine is actually MORE addictive than cannabis according to the 1999 Institute of Medicine study requested by then-head of the ONDCP Barry McCaffrey, who liked the results of that study so little, he actually directly contradicts its results on a regular basis.
When those 'in charge' stop listening to science, it's time to stop listening to those 'in charge.'
Let ordinary Americans grow a little marijuana in their own yard
Medicinal? Recreational? Inspirational? Who cares? Is the potential harm really worth putting Americans in jail? The US Dept of Justice estimates that 10% of Americans use marijuana every year; if it were a significant source of harm, we'd see an epidemic of health effects. Aspirin is clearly more dangerous; fast food is probably responsible for more health problems than marjuana.
Let's put the drug cartels out of business. Let's allow individuals to grow a little marijuana for personal use. Limit the size of the growing area or the number of plants, and put a small user-fee on it to cover administrative costs and leave a little something for education, health care, infrastructure…
One possibility:$100 per year for a permit to cultivate a dozen plants, something like a fishing license.
It's a win-win.
Who’s on board for this?
the law is on our side
Technically, what the president just did was admit that marijuana is safe and effective medicine for some illnesses--roughly the same admission that the American College of Physicians demanded from Congress last year. So what? Well, if it is safe and legitimate medicine--as all scientific studies indicate--then it can no longer be considered a "schedule I narcotic". Therefore, the Controlled Substances Act no longer applies to marijuana. Safe and effective medicine cannot also be a dangerous and addictive 'drug', so the herb (marijuana, cannabis,...) has just been legalized--all we have to do now is hold the courts accountable to their own laws, and sue the shit out of the DEA if they try to intervene. The law is on our side now!
Plus, what about prevention?
Well, if marijuana is good for slowing, stopping, or reversing the spread of cancer, why can't everyone use it to prevent it from taking hold to begin with? Well, they can. There's just a risk of getting in trouble with the cops over it.
It seems to be that if the healthcare costs are the greatest concern right now, then the legalization of pot leading to the inexpensive reduction of health problems all-around would be a desirable thing. Of course, look at what most of the ads on TV are nowadays: pharmaceutical ads, and they are some of the biggest advertisers for the news media. Is it any wonder that "good news" concerning marijuana is hard to find on these mainstream news outlets? I'd investigate that and find out what the pharmaceutical industry knows that it doesn't want the news airing: Marijuana is good for you. The science shows it. My experience proves it to me. I should be able to use it without fearing getting caught by the police, and I should be able to either grow my own, or purchase it cheaply. I don't believe it should be taxed heavily just because some see it as some kind of "party drug". To me, it's not a party drug. To me, it's nutrition. It's food, even if smoking it is my main method of consumption.
I've been drunk once: It detaches my body's action from my thinking. I've smoked cigarettes: They make me feel like I've been poisoned. I've smoked marijuana: It makes me feel glorious, and does not impair my motor function. The choice is clear. Marijuana is safe. The other two are just nasty.
Damaeus
woooo hooooo ;-)
Just got done reading an article about the medicinal benefits of WEED.The article stated "Marijuana has been hailed as a prescription for many ills and physicians once used it to stimulate appetite, relieve chronic pain, and treat asthma and migraines".No drug rehab required :-) It's true ya know.It's been actually scientifically proven (i see some of u sceptics out there doubtin this but it is true)
The reason why cannabis was
The reason why cannabis was even criminalized was because a few powerful, greedy men's empires were threatened by the hemp plant. marijuana conspiracy <-- this article does a good job of explaining how that happened. One of the government's most successful tricks up its sleeves are taxing things that they deem morally reprehensible. The people always subscribe to this because they're afraid of being judged by others that are also subscribing to these, i guess "misinformed ideologies," and give the gov more and more control over our personal lives. We live in an age of gov induced hypersensitivity, and now any little annoyance that is able to be stigmatized w/ propaganda is indulged as a legitimate problem. Pretty soon they're going to start persecuting ppl for wearing white, since it reflects light the best and technically would put the ppl around them at a greater risk for skin cancer (bad example, I know, because at least cancer has been proven to harm your health, unlike weed). Yea, it's ridiculous sounding, but the logic is exactly the same as ppl that can't stand being around smokers. The government is the one instilling a sense of corporeality and attachment to our bodies, which is just another exercise in using fear (the only thing that governments are good at) as well as an attempt at preserving our bodies to increase productivity to the state (what other governments were health nuts for this same reason? oh yea, the nationalist socialist party).The same goes for the way the gov targets certain items to hike up the taxes on, such as "sin taxes." Like almost all laws passed in this country, there's always some corporate bullshit behind it. I took a free smoking cessation class back when I was in college, and it seemed like they legitimately wanted to help me until they started throwing expensive teeth whitening products at us at the end. (I remember one of the brands was malibu bright, which is by no means a cheap complimentary toothbrush if that's what you were picturing). They should just call it "the government needs an excuse to take more of our money" tax