DEA Mary McElderry is concerned more with the money made by those selling marijuana, than those that benefit from the drug used to help with an illness that other drugs seem not to help.
In California and other States, the people have voted and the States have made Medical Marijuana legal for use with certain illness. The Federal government looks at the sell and use very differently and are putting a stop to such sell and use.
Should the Federal government over step what the States have ruled legal?
In California and other States, the people have voted and the States have made Medical Marijuana legal for use with certain illness. The Federal government looks at the sell and use very differently and are putting a stop to such sell and use.
Should the Federal government over step what the States have ruled legal?
24 comments:
Conservatives are appalled because people are making money selling marijuana. And they're trying to squelch California's number one cash crop.
And yet these same people are always screaming "too much government" when it comes to regulating Big Business. "Free enterprise," "Individualism," etc.
These schizoid wingnuts must have more personalities than Sybil.
They care about the corporate operations that squeeze every penny from our government taxes and the pharmaceutical companies that are killing us daily.
What is the problem here? Its a plant. Its been used for centuries. Really, Marijuana is not a drug, its natural.
It's the money being made and taken away from the pharmaceutical companies.
"Should the Federal government over step what the States have ruled legal?"
Well, the crowd currently in power has screamed "states rights" forever...seems a bit ironic, eh?:)
let's talk-
As long as the pharmaceuticals have our politicians in their pockets, we'll never see legalized marijuana.
Hoping this isn't sounding too stupid or naive....how difficult is it to grow your own small crop of marijuana in your basement with grow lights? I don't smoke it, and have only tried it a couple times when I was younger, so I wouldn't even know where to get the seeds. But I would think that anyone who wants it for medicinal purposes, as long as they keep it quiet, could grow their own. No?
Very true The Future Was Yesterday, very true indeed.
It's easy to grow Mary Ellen, but one would want some of the best when dealing with an illness.
Maybe what growing it yourself is not the best to help with their problems. I don't know because I don't use it as well.
When it comes to this or any other drug related issue, my position stands firm.
Legalize everything. Take the money that is being wasted fighting the "war on drugs", and use it for education, and treatment on demand.
Its such a loaded question..sometimes the Feds need to institute stuff across the board for all states ie. the right to safe access to pregnancy termination, and equal rights and protections under the law. In this case they really need to re schedule MJ - it ought not be in the same catagory as Heroin simple as that. We already jail too many people.
Its a sorry situation. I long for a day when the criminals running the show are brought to justice for their treasonous , Unitary Excutive Theories, their putting power and party over the Constitution. WE had a coup in 2000. Its been a tailspin into fascism ever since.
Hopefully we can get some progress this coming week , The congress must not capitulate anymore to this president..and any new candidates must be willing to review all signing statements..and the criminal twisted positions of this group of zelots. The sift boating tactics are just beyond the pale. Its been like this for yrs now. We need transparancy - integrity and
people should have access to marijuana without risking jail or worse. Its a plant. The effecy of it is proven , the studies are surpressed and always for political gain. The government makes huge amounts of money dealing drugs and housing prisoners..its a travesty really. More people die of alcoholism every day..but this country seems entirely too content living in a police state.
Hopefully the pendulum will swing back towards sanity and soon.
people ought to be allowed to cultivate plants for their personal use - sometimes that requires lots of plants to have the quality needed for the "best crop" plants have to grow to a certain age, before their "sex" can be determined - so u need seedlings..One of the best part of cannabis distribution centers is the safety of access and the quality of the product. Some people are too ill to garden anyhow. Its just cruel and the double standard is preposterous..we are the MOST drugged society on the planet..big pharma direct markets this pill and that pill to us all day everyday - but an herb ..how hells bells..don't forget the yrs of propaganda too, Henry Anslinger , the stamp act, The racist elements in the demonization of an herb that has been a gift from the earth to the people since the beginning of time. It grows almost everywhere. Used for thousands of yrs..And Industrial hemp
Industrial Hemp which has .003 THC in it (the psychoactive component) is different from the cannabis we smoke as night is to day. Hemp as a cash crop , could revitalize our entire industrial base..(Ford made and entire car out of it) the product list is endless, literally its a miraculas plant , the farmers would not need subsidies anymore - Its also easy on the soil and the earth. BUT we are under a group of nutcases in government that are so greedy and regressive. Its pathetic. Our Constitution was written on HEMP. HEMP and good "smoke" should be part of our American tradition.
Both Deemons and Repukes support the phony War on Drugs and Hemp.
This "war" has done more to poison our streets than Immigration itself. And it will never end; the Prison/Injustice Industry is too big.
I worked as a counselor for six years with drug addicts, and the "War on Drugs" is a fucking joke.
It's a war on human beings.
Even if might not like it at times, the Supremacy Clause of the US Constitution. (Article 6, Clause 2) makes, it legal.
Federal law always trumps state law. Most of the time, it is a good thing. The case of medical MJ is an exception, though.
per fairlane--
--The Feds are refusing to let the American Indian make a buck selling hemp. This was documented on a PBS doc. a while back. This country is still messing with those folq.
The Repukes love to talk about "freedom" but they are not big on granting much of it.
For a group that claim to be "compassionate conservatives" they seem to enjoy the suffering of others by denying the legalization of something that would alleviate suffering.
Hi Lizzy, your statement; "Take the money that is being wasted fighting the "war on drugs", and use it for education, and treatment on demand." Would be more useful, except for trement needed for addictive drugs.
proudprogressive, I hope that at some point our government gets the mesage and allow MJ to be used for certain illness.
Ronald 'More-More' Moshki, I agree; "This "war" has done more to poison our streets than Immigration itself. And it will never end; the Prison/Injustice Industry is too big".
fairlane, I will take your word on it, there's not much that I know. You however have been close and up front, working with those on drugs.
equestrian1, I concur federal law most always trump State law.
Larry, I think the only time that suffering is wrong is when it effects you and I. For those that see it that way cry the most when their term comes. Then they ask us to understand, forgive or be compassionate.
Sorry, you've been tagged. However, it's a cool one. See my blog for details.
a couple of points here.
1] yes, marijuana IS a drug. or at least the part of it that crosses the blood-brain barrier is.
that's the definition of a drug.
aspirin is made from willow bark -- and is a drug.
morphine is made from poppies -- and is a drug.
alcohol is made from grain -- and is a drug. etc. etc.
that DOESN'T, however, mean that marijuana should be illegal. it's not a dangerous drug -- so long as it's used responsibly.
and
2] growing it in your basement with grow lights would be a viable option [if you could get hold of good seed stock] except for the government's war against the American people.
the police USED TO, at least [I don't know if they still do] use infrared-sniffing software to hunt for grow-lights. the signature of such heat sources seeps out of walls and can be detected from the street [illegal searches, anyone?]
back when the eavesdropping first came to light, there was a news article that the infrared-sniffing resources had been switched over to sniffing for bombs -- so I don't know if they still hunt for marijuana that way or not.
two crows it sounds as if you work in law enforcement.
I am completely in favor of legalizing marijuana for personal use. In Oregon, there is a movement afoot to allow marijuana to be sold in state liquor stores alongside booze. I'm sure that will get our current idiot federal government all riled up... and should it be put to the voters in Oregon and passed, fur will probably fly.
Just think of how much money the government could make from growing the stuff...
I think the real beginning of the end for marijuana in America was when William Randolph Hearst viewed the potential of hemp as a national cash crop as a threat to his timber industry interests. A thing called a "decorticator" had been invented, and it was designed to separate parts of the hemp plant into various usable parts. Just think, fiber for clothing, better quality paper, oil... but Hearst and his friends started the national "reefer madness" garbage, confusing the highly useful hemp plant with something for use in getting loaded. That got Americans thinking hemp/marijuana was a "devil weed". While today it might be the pharmaceutical industry and the puritans behind the putting down of marijuana, about 75 years ago it was the pitting of hemp against other industries from which it might have taken money away.
It always has to come down to the money, doesn't it...
Snave, the problem right now is that the government doesn't want anyone else making the money. It would also be hard to have a law past that allows the legal use of marijuana federally. The pharmaceutical companies would have a fit and would use their power of the lobbyist to knock legal marijuana sells down.
hey, LT--
nope. I don't work for law enforcement--thank goodness. I like to sleep nights.
I read about the infrared sniffing trucks back in 2002 or so. The Washington Post [I think it was] said that resources that had been being used to find marijuana gardens were now being used to snoop for bombs by targeting people with 'Arab-sounding names' and searching their homes without even going on their property.
one more thing, LT--
as to the last question in your post: it's a tough one to answer.
unfortunately, there's precedent for the fed overturning laws the states have passed.
I lived through the eruptions of the 1960's when it was deemed perfectly legal for states to rule in favor of 'separate but equal' [yeah, right] education for minority students, and separate waiting rooms at bus and train stations, separate bathrooms, drinking fountains, etc.
it was also ok for cops to turn fire hoses on people if they protested these measures.
the feds stepped in and made such things illegal.
I, for one, am glad they did.
I don't have an answer to the question, really-- but it doesn't seem as if I have the right to complain too loudly when I disagree with the fed's actions when it overrules CA's marijuana laws or Oregon's death-with-dignity laws -- no matter how much I may agree with the individual states this time.
all I can hope for is to turn away from this rule by the lunatic fringe and, hopefully, restore sanity to the country as a whole.
the problem with that scenario is that the dems who might have taken us there seem to be scared of their own shadows, these days.
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