Posted on 12/17/2014 11:22:21 AM PST by ConservingFreedom
Dispensaries in the 23 states that have legalized medical marijuana can all breathe a sigh of relief. The massive “Cromnibus” spending bill passed Saturday night includes an amendment that essentially shuts down the DEA’s pricey prosecution of state-sanctioned medical marijuana.
The amendment bans the Justice Department from using funds to “prevent [medical marijuana states] from implementing their own State laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession, or cultivation of medical marijuana.”
The bill now awaits approval from President Obama.
The Obama administration has regularly raided and prosecuted medical marijuana dispensaries regardless of state laws. According to a study by Americans for Safe Access, the administration has spent $80 million each year prosecuting medical marijuana, amounting to $200,000 every day and $300 million since Obama took office.
The amendment won’t eliminate all the legal problems medical marijuana producers face due to federal marijuana prohibition. It does not address banking issues that prohibit them from depositing their profits, for example. But advocacy groups are hailing it as a significant step in the right direction.
“The federal government will finally respect the decisions made by the majority of states that passed medical marijuana laws,” Rep. Sam Farr (D-Calif.), a co-sponsor of the amendment along with Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), told The Huffington Post. “This is great day for common sense because now our federal dollars will be spent more wisely on prosecuting criminals and not sick patients.”
The amendment will also shield industrial hemp production from the DEA. Industrial hemp production is legal in eighteen states and has been approved by the Obama administration, but just this year the DEA seized hemp seeds intended for a legal research program.
A majority of Americans support leaving marijuana laws up to the states, according to a recent study from Third Way. 78 percent support legalizing medical marijuana, and 67 percent support granting states who pass legalization a safe haven from federal laws. 60 percent prefer state control over marijuana legalization, rather than federal.
Meanwhile, the fate of weed in Washington D.C. post-Cromnibus remains in question. A group of congressmen banded together to quietly include a measure intended to freeze D.C.’s legalization by pulling funds to enact it. But now some lawmakers think there’s a loophole in the language that could end up making weed even more freely available in the District.
“Based on a plain reading of the bill and principles of statutory interpretation, it is arguable that the rider does not block D.C. from carrying out its marijuana legalization initiative,” said Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), speaking on the House floor last week.
Instead of blocking legalization, some now argue it would allow legalization to move forward but prevent enacting regulation to go along with it—leaving marijuana legal but unregulated.
I find some of the anti marijuana legalization arguments exhausting, because in the 19th century both marijuana and hashish use was normal and legal in USA.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/dope/etc/cron.html
The problem with their argument is like PROHIBITION, which created an underground market that exploited alchohol, so did the War on Drugs create a larger underground market for pot.....
My major objection to the War On Drugs is teenagers, who try anything that is forbidden in rebellion to their parents as they fight for independence, and as a CJ Instructor now retired, it is sad that so many young people have spent time in prison for possession with hard time criminals....who may now be indoctrinated in how to be the same. That criminal record should have been clear and their future not destroyed by some possession law.
That needed changing. I do not use pot, however I see the same errors repeated since LBJ, that created a criminal enterprise (studied and taught)and lucrative black market for alcohol during PROHIBITION, so bad it had to be repealed and the error noted.
Paranoia is not the way to look at pot and it’s medical uses, it was used in the 19th century for medical purposes.
The link explains that, and I know people with extreme pain who find that as the only solution. So I agree with most of your arguments and comments.
Those unwilling to learn the facts and are stuck on religious dogma, I find that no different that the Muslims who want everyone to be just like them or death.
I am a Christian and there is NO SOLID REFERENCE in the Bible about Medical Marijuana, and I read it regularly. Wine, yes. Partying yes. All things in moderation is the message.
Third sentence: "But the statistics provided no evidence that dispensaries themselves are driving crime in their surrounding neighborhoods or that crimes at medical-marijuana stores are increasing."
So you expect through osmosis to soon become a pot user?
How did you learn about it then?
Knowing about marijuana is a vice?
It's in that same area that gives them the power to regulate a bacteria, such as Anthrax, or Chemicals, like VX gas. It's called "the Defense clause."
Because threats to the nation can take on so many guises, I hope you will forgive the founders for not enumerating every rock, bush or tree that might be used as a weapon against us.
Given this thinking, it sounds as if:
A) You think alcohol should be banned for the same reasons.
Or -
B) Maybe, like alcohol & all the various ills that come with its use & abuse, you recognize the vast majority of people can and have used marijuana without driving their cars off cliffs, destroying their families, losing their jobs or spontaneously combusting.
The greatest injury done by marijuana is it's unwitting spread to fresh victims. The Harm is done by introducing anyone to it. It is, for all intents and purposes, an infection that spreads by contact to others.
That people are unaware of the damage it can cause to an individual makes it all the more insidious. As with cigarettes, they simply don't realize that they are taking a big chance on wrecking their life when they are first introduced to it.
It all boils down to WE SAY SO nanny-ism. And then they wonder how the can come after tobacco and sugary foods.
Do you support banning those too?
Of course the Feds regulate herbs in many ways. They regulate how you can market and sell herbs, what medical benefits you can claim, and there have been many regulations and bans of herbs used in dietary supplements to name a few examples.
I wonder if medical mj is good for schadenfreude toxicity.
“I am a Christian and there is NO SOLID REFERENCE in the Bible about Medical Marijuana, and I read it regularly.”
If anything, there is a clear permission in Genesis that it can be used as food, at least:
“And God said , Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.” Gen. 1:29
So perhaps doobies are off the table, but I don’t see how a Christian can object to someone eating a brownie (in moderation).
Wow, so your statist BS (which was shoved down America's throat 77 years ago by the New Deal-era congress, based on Harry Anslinger's lies about MJ making white women have sex with black jazz musicians) is now just an article of faith? "Nobody cares" that all the fearmongering about MJ being a so-called "gateway drug" has been debunked every which way from Sunday?
Kinda like Algore's global warming religion: "nobody cares" that there hasn't been any warming in almost 2 decades: we have a statist agenda to push! Interesting that the Drug War jackboots and the Global Warming chicken-little alarmists are on the same page. Good company you keep ...
LOL...
No dude, you left out a bunch of side effects. Side effects include shattering the glass door to your girlfriend's apartment, hitting her, getting arrested by the cops, getting out on bail, driving your car under a suspended license, getting caught, driving your car under a suspended license while you are driving to court to address the other charge of driving with a suspended license, and getting caught again, driving again under a suspended license, getting caught again, going to jail, getting your new girlfriend to bail you out, beating her up, getting your car impounded while once again driving under a suspended license, needing to come up with several thousands of dollars in fine money for driving your car with a suspended license, and probably next week i'll have a few more side effects to list for you when I get caught up on the latest news about this one pot-head whom I know.
I also hope you understand I left out a whole bunch of OTHER side effects, because they happened last year, and because there are really too many to mention.
Suffice it to say, you have dramatically understated the side effects of being a pot addled twit.
Providing for the common defense *IS* preventing the spread of the dangerous infectious disease known as drugs. They are not "recreational." They are the primary ingredient in a recipe for national death.
It's not a "moral" cause, unless you regard survival as a "moral" issue. It is also not "twisting" the constitution to defend against threats to the survival of the nation.
I guarantee there was more than MJ involved. Along with quite a bit of dumbassery. You have got to find better friends... Or, is it like they say, "Birds of a feather"?
Yeah. We have to destroy the republic to save the nation. That's the ticket.
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