Last week, news came out that the Obama administration would cease pursuing pot-smoking patients in states with legal medical-marijuana laws.
Feds to issue new medical marijuana policy
Federal drug agents won't pursue pot-smoking patients or their sanctioned suppliers in states that allow medical marijuana, under new legal guidelines to be issued Monday by the Obama administration.
Two Justice Department officials described the new policy to The Associated Press, saying prosecutors will be told it is not a good use of their time to arrest people who use or provide medical marijuana in strict compliance with state law.
The guidelines to be issued by the department do, however, make it clear that agents will go after people whose marijuana distribution goes beyond what is permitted under state law or use medical marijuana as a cover for other crimes, the officials said.
The new policy is a significant departure from the Bush administration, which insisted it would continue to enforce federal anti-pot laws regardless of state codes.
What do you think? Should marijuana be legal?
The old argument against decriminalizing marijuana goes something like this:
[Y]ou often hear advocates of drug legalization say that we're never going to win the war on drugs and that it would free up space in our prisons if we simply legalized drugs. While it's true that we may not ever win the war against drugs -- i.e. never entirely eradicate the use of illegal drugs -- we're not ever going to win the war against murder, robbery and rape either. But our moral code rejects each of them, so none -- including drugs -- can be legalized if we still adhere to that code.
Gratefully, more and more people are starting to wake-up to the inherent flaw in this argument.
Of course we're not ever going to legalize murder, robbery and rape. But not because "our moral code rejects each of them," but because these actions infringe upon someone else's rights to life, liberty, and property.
Morality is not the domain of the government. After all, there is no virtue in a man who is forced to behave a certain way. Another way of putting it is, there's no virtue in tyranny.
When deciding if something should be criminalized or not, the proper question to ask is, "Does the act infringe upon another's inalienable rights?" Otherwise the law simply becomes the barrel of a gun, used by the powerful to control the powerless.
The good news is, however, more and more people are beginning to see through this facade.
Feds won’t overrule states on marijuana laws
In a shocking move, the Obama administration has decided to embrace federalism. Well, not really all that shocking, as the Department of Justice plans to reverse a Bush administration policy of enforcing federal marijuana laws in states that allow for medicinal use of the substance.
On the point of marijuana, it also holds some promise as the first step in reviewing the war on the herb that costs us billions of dollars and infringes on personal liberties while attempting to protect us from ourselves — and a product less lethal than alcohol. Maybe we can finally have a rational debate on at least this front of the “war on drugs,” which has done more damage to federalism than Democrats or Republicans combined.
Good on the Obama Adminstration and Eric Holder for changing the Medical Marijuana Law!
I have always felt that the Government’s so-called “War on Drugs” was a huge freaking joke and quite frankly, has not stopped totally drug usage in this Country.
Medical Marijuana Gets the Liberty You Don’t
Two cheers today for the Obama Administration which announces that federal drug agents will cease harassment of medical marijuana users in states where it’s legal. That’s good news for liberty advocates in states such as my Colorado where dispensaries are beginning to pop up after medical MJ was legalized by referendum back in 1996.
Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont or Washington and have a sympathetic doctor ...
Meanwhile, if you don't live in one of those places and/or you don't want to dissemble about why you want to use marijuana, you'll have to wait longer for the pleasures you assumed would have to be legalized as soon as the people who were young in the 1960s got old enough to fully infiltrate the government.
I'm glad to see so many people against the War On a Plant that Grows in the Ground, but let's not get too excited just yet ...
This move by the Obama administration only concedes that making federal cases against marijuana in states where it is legal is a poor use of a prosecutor's time and money. Also, the federal government still retains the right to reverse itself arbitrarily by making case-by-case decisions.
About the “new” federal medical marijuana policy
Longtime readers will know that I have been very supportive of state initiatives on medical marijuana dating back to my years at the Seattle Times ...
So, I have no general policy quarrel with this at all. Finally, an Obama policy that officially reduces the role of the federal government. Or so it seems ...
The “clarifying” memo that will be sent out today, seven months after Holder first announced the “shift,” makes clear that the Obama administration will actually retain the same discretion the Bush administration exercises to prosecute someone whose activities are deemed legal in states that allow medical marijuana use.
Obama's New Medical Marijuana Policy Is Not A Step Forward For Liberty
This is neither a step forward for advocates of marijuana legalization, nor "states' rights" proponents who want to see the Federal government staying on its side of the line drawn by the 10th amendment.
It's interesting to see some hardened libertarians and pot-activists excited about this while two pretty conventionally conservative publications aren't being fooled at all ... even if this is a teeny-tiny step forward in one direction, the Obama Administration is taking gigantic leaps backward in other areas of policy.
[W]hat does it say when the government makes a symbolic gesture toward drug legalization and federalism on pot, but literally bans the sale of clove cigarettes while hiking taxes on all other cigarettes?
Let me make this very, very clear. If you are a 10th amendment proponent, civil libertarian, advocate for drug legalization, or supporter of medical marijuana laws: Barack Obama IS NOT your friend.
I'm all in favor of liberalizing marijuana laws, including medical-marijuana, but let's be frank here ...
People supporting the criminalization of marijuana do not do so on the grounds of medical concerns, therefore the people who favor decriminalization should not either.
Someone smoking a joint does not infringe upon anyone else's rights to life, liberty and property. In a country founded upon natural law, this should be enough. But the most decisive argument for decriminalization today, is that this War On a Plant that Grows in the Ground, has been just another dismal Big Government failure.
Even worse, it's a failure that encroaches the private lives of adults, breeds crime and violence, and robs taxpayers of more than $1 billion per month.
It's time we readdress this "war," and legalize marijuana.
Here, here!
Perfectly stated.