"Herb"?
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.
There were hemp farms in Wisconsin in the past. Used for it fibers in making strong ropes.
Nobody proposes to drug the country - but only to permit adults to drug themselves ... which they can already do with alcohol.
Nonsense. Pot laws have dramatically loosened over the last 20 years, yet violent crime has plunged. You are safer now in non-black areas than at just about any time in US history.
Perhaps you should associate with a more reputable crowd.
No my friend. You *THINK* you are talking about the pool in your backyard, but there is no such thing. Your usage of drugs affects the entire community. It does not stay in your backyard, it comes out to play. If you buy it on the street, it didn't stay in your yard. If you can't pay your bills because you aren't working, then it didn't stay in your yard. If you induce anyone else to try it, verbally or by example, it didn't stay in your yard.
Now if by some miracle of self control, you can keep the usage of it private and in *YOUR* yard, then we will have nothing to argue about because it will in no way have affected anything outside of your yard. Neither I nor anyone else will even be aware of it, but I doubt you, or very many other people can insulate the consequences of this stuff from the minds and bodies of other people.
But here is a dumb question. How did this stuff *GET* in your yard? If it doesn't spread beyond yards, how did you get induced into it?
Most of what you do "affects" someone - if that's the test for government action, kiss liberty goodbye.
Personal choice? I CHOSE to put it there? No one forced me to. I pay my bills (successful, tax paying, voting, productive member of society, in fact) and here in CO, it's legal to grow enough for personal use, so there is no need for s store or to get it on the street. In plain words, it really is NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS, so get your nose out of where it DON'T belong. Instead, look to your own home. Got kids? They ARE your business. Best be sure they getting their ID's checked by the street corner dealer!
Medical mj states did change the law, as they are entitled under the Constitution.
Do you not support the Tenth Amendment?
Oh, yeah...cuz if it’s legal, ya HAVE to do it.
So - STATES RIGHTS are finally being recognized
Cant’ this be expanded on - gun rights etc etc?
This is a seriously misinformed and misleading statement. Major drug usage did not began until after the Civil War primed the veterans of both side with massive quantities of addictive narcotic painkillers.
Prior to this time, there was little public knowledge or large supply of dangerous narcotics, so there were was no awareness or wide scale usage to worry about. It was only after people started realizing that this stuff was killing more and more people each year, that sufficient awareness developed so that they could start contemplating the need to regulate this stuff.
If you don't think Cocaine Cola was going to become a major problem, I don't know what to tell you.
Obama will just ignore the law.
How did you learn about it then?
Knowing about marijuana is a vice?
Not what I said you idiot, if it doesn't spread through "osmosis", how did *YOU* find out about it?
By your arguement, the years between the founding of this nation and the prohibition of marijuana were libertine. Is that your position?
Cant’ this be expanded on - gun rights etc etc?
Yes. Dr. Walter E Williams, July 03, 2013 =>
The heartening news for us is that state legislatures are beginning to awaken to their duty to protect their citizens from unconstitutional acts by the Congress, the White House and a derelict Supreme Court.
According to an Associated Press story, about four-fifths of the states now have local laws that reject or ignore federal laws on marijuana use, gun control, health insurance requirements and identification standards for driver's licenses. Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback recently signed a measure threatening felony charges against federal agents who enforce certain firearms laws in his state.
--http://econfaculty.gmu.edu/wew/articles/13/DistrustingGovernment.htm
A) You think alcohol should be banned for the same reasons.
Alcohol unquestionably doesn't stay on it's end of the pool. 85,000 people die every year as a result of Alcohol consumption, and the monetary consequences of it goes far beyond that.
But what I have repeatedly said in arguments with this fool that started this thread is that Alcohol has a many thousand year history with humanity, and a very extensive and deliberate acquiescence from our culture.
It may cause serious problems, but society long ago made the decision to put up with it. The salient point here is this: We don't have to be "fair" to Marijuana just because alcohol gets a pass by society.
Also, given the damage caused by Alcohol, why would we want another one like it?
Drugs are also not knowingly self-administered. No sane person, knowing they will be consigning themselves to a life of horror and misery would willingly do such a thing.
That is why they are so deadly. They are harmless seeming time bombs that end up maiming and killing people.
No, the Defense clause is quite appropriate.
I am perfectly content to watch as regulation and taxation slowly choke the life out of the tobacco industry, but an outright ban? No.
Changes to society should be made slowly so as to give people time to adjust to them.
At this point, I am completely opposed to any effort to ban tobacco products.
"Herb"?
Can you point to me EXACTLY where in the US Constitution the Federal government is given the specific enumerated power to tell people what they can or can not put into their own bodies?
Article and Section please. Do take your time. I’ll wait.
Dumbassery is far too common amongst the people I know who smoke weed. I don't know of a bigger collection of idiots than the various people I know who smoke weed. Odds are, if it's not the weed, I should know at least as many dumbasses who don't. Since I look around and don't see them, I'm taking it as pretty strong evidence that it's the weed which is causing the problem.
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