Medical Marijuana: US Supreme Court Upholds Federal Prohibition
Without directly invalidating State marijuana laws that allow for medical use, the US Supreme Court has decided that "federal law trumps state law" and that therefore, federal prosecutions of individuals using marijuana cannot be countered by reference to state laws allowing its use, be that medical or otherwise.
According to this article, the court said the regulation of illicit drugs is a matter of interstate commerce, reserved exclusively to the federal government by the Constitution. That includes regulating local activities, such as the growing and consumption of medical marijuana, that could have an effect on interstate markets. So the federal Controlled Substance Act of 1970, which classifies marijuana as a drug unacceptable for any use, holds sway over any state provisions that say otherwise. Americans will have to change Federal Law on the prohibition of substances, state ballot initiatives may be a step on the way, but as shown by the Supreme Court, they are not sufficient.
The decision also shows up - with merciless clarity - the insanity, promoted at the highest levels, of prohibition of some substances, while others are completely legal. Prohibition of substances, as logical as the proponents' arguments might seem at first view, actually creates a "criminal layer" of society, for no other reason than the moral argument that "it's not good for you and therefore you shouldn't do it". But the enforcement of moral judgements and preferences does not seem a proper province of law. While there is a definite push by some to reform drug laws at the level of United Nations policy, we have a long way to go.
While proponents of marijuana use in the US say that marijuana is a medicine and should therefore be allowed to be used by the sick, Jon Rappoport of www.nomorefakenews.com takes a different view. He points out the inconsistencies inherent in prohibition policy as such, and argues that behind prohibition we find a desire to control people's lives down to the most minute detail. His arguments are going to the heart of the problem.
MEDICAL POT SHOT DOWN IN US
JUNE 6, 2005. The US Supreme Court has ruled that the federal government can prosecute a person who uses marijuana for medical purposes---even in those states that have passed laws allowing such use, and even where the pot is not crossing state lines, and even if the pot is grown in the patient's back yard, and even if no money changes hands.
The thinking of this august bunch of legal goons has several vectors: growing free pot for medical purposes could (COULD) LEAD TO wider use and sale of the plant; people might say they're sick and need pot, when they aren't sick; in a state like California, where a referendum was passed permitting medical use, referendum was somehow less substantial than a law passed in the legislature would have been.
This all adds up to a blow against pot, against free choice, against states rights vis-a-vis the power of the federal government---and perhaps most important of all---against the inherent power of the people to defect from and opt out of treatment with pharmaceuticals.
Because surely, this decision of the Supremes is a tip of the hat to the legal drug industry. "Our drugs, not your drugs."
Many so-called "states-rights conservatives" (who actually stand for their own peculiar brand of federal power over the power of the states) are haunted by dreams of people holding a joint in their hands and smiling---these upright conservatives would rather picture a person zonked on a tranq watching TV game shows. That's much more American.
Well, compare the effects of pot versus the effects of the recently withdrawn Vioxx, the painkiller that was causing thousands of heart attacks and strokes.
Booze, too, is much more American than pot. Booze is good. It conjures up pics of hard-charging businessmen checking out of their brains in hotels all over this great nation.
Booze is associated with work; pot is associated with slacking.
With pot, you might actually entertain a thought that is out of the mainstream. With booze, you're safe. You're still in the trap. You're part of the herd. You're up, and then down and out, in the same framework. You don't move off center.
Face it. Lawmakers and "good Americans" everywhere are terrified of individual choice. It wobbles the great ship of state. It suggests that the rabid consumer culture might not be the greatest thing ever invented.
DUI and vehicular homicide are American. Smoking weed and not leaving the house are criminal.
I offer this: in every industrialized country in the world, people continue to find ways to destroy their own lives. These ways are too numerous to mention. But most of them are legal. They're acceptable. For example, a parent can have a doctor inject a vaccine loaded with mercury and aluminum and various germs directly into his/her baby. This is good. This is right. This is playing the game according to the rules. Autism is politically correct.
But when an adult smokes a joint, he is going outside the consensus story artifically told by our magnificent leaders. That's a five-alarm fire. That's a nightmare. That's a terrible threat. That's worse than murder.
One poke on a joint deserves a death sentence. Quick trial, no appeal, and then lights out.
Then we can get back on track.
Fill up the churches. Vote for the Republicrats. Wave the flag. Support our troops. Watch The Price is Right.
I never liked the medical marijuana stratagem. It was a detour all along. If free choice by adult citizens across the board---for any reason---was going to be approached like some Everest by devious means, it was bound to fail.
You can have actual freedom or you can have actual slavery.
Choice, no choice.
Which is why I want to see a list of every chemical substance ingested by each Supreme Court justice. Each drug, each type of booze. Daily dosages. Let's see what choices they're making.
What's Bush dropping? And Kerry, Gore, Clinton, Frist, Ted Kennedy? Is there a Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil in the crowd?
Feel safe, citizen. Feel very safe. Don't worry, be happy. Codex is trying its ass off to destroy the nutritional supplement industry. Thank God. We need more Prozacs and more Paxils and more school shootings. School shootings and the media-covered grief follow-ups are truly American. Some dude wandering off to look at a stream with a joint in his hand is the bane of us all. He is an infection, a germ, and we must destroy him. He is ANTI. He is a foul worm in the body-dollar-politic.
Thank you, Supreme Court. Thank you Eli Lilly. You light up my life.
JON RAPPOPORT www.nomorefakenews.com
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See also:Taxpayer Group Criticizes Supreme Court Decision on Medical Marijuana
"The emphasis on marijuana is one of most wasteful and absurd policies in the ongoing war on drugs," CAGW President Tom Schatz said. "The federal government's adamant rejection of marijuana as a medical alternative costs taxpayers millions of dollars annually."Why organized medicine wants to outlaw nutrition and turn healers into criminals
The History of the Non-Medical Use of Drugs in the United States
Legalize! - 6 Reasons why the prohibition of drugs must end
Mike Adams: The raw (and ugly) truth about the war on drugs
'War on Drugs:' A Foul Tragedy
By Garrison Keillor, In These Times. Posted December 6, 2005
A marijuana grower can get life in prison without parole, while a murderer might be in for eight years. No rational person can defend this.Liberalism's Brain on Drugs
By Ryan Grim, In These Times. Posted December 6, 2005
If we live in a fundamentally free society, how does confining a drug offender to 17 years in prison jive with America's values of equality and liberty?Pot Shrinks Tumors; Government Knew in '74
By Raymond Cushing, AlterNet
Posted on May 31, 2000, Printed on June 7, 2006
The term medical marijuana took on dramatic new meaning in February, 2000 when researchers in Madrid announced they had destroyed incurable brain tumors in rats by injecting them with THC, the active ingredient in cannabis. The Madrid study marks only the second time that THC has been administered to tumor-bearing animals; the first was a Virginia investigation 26 years ago. In both studies, the THC shrank or destroyed tumors in a majority of the test subjects.Pot Shots - Taking aim at the global health monopoly
Marijuana is a natural medicine that is much more effective than most of the deadly and many times addictive medicines that the pharmaceutical industry forces down our throats. The best part, though, is that addictive prescription and street drugs can be and are being eliminated by medical marijuana in an astounding percentage of patients.Medical Marijuana: New Mexico Patients Under Attack
On Tuesday, agents of the Pecos Valley Drug Taskforce in conjunction with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration searched the home of a registered medical marijuana patient who has lost the use of his legs and suffers chronic pain and muscle spasms due to a spinal cord injury. They seized his medicine and are now threatening to prosecute him in federal court where there are no legal protections for medical marijuana patients. This intimidating raid comes at the very time New Mexico officials are debating the best way to develop a state-licensed production and distribution system for medical marijuana.The raid highlights how disconnected federal law is from the people of the US. As New Mexico approved a law legalizing the cultivation and use of hemp for medical uses, federal courts and law hold on to a policy of prohibition, destined to go the way alcohol prohibition has gone decades ago.ACLU Launches Campaign to Decriminalize Marijuana
Travel writer Rick Steves and the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington have formed a partnership to tackle a topic they call the equivalent of the prohibition of alcohol in the 1920s: the criminalization of marijuana. Steves, the Edmonds-based travel guru who five years ago openly acknowledged that he uses marijuana while visiting Europe, says he's not "pro-marijuana," but in favor of discussing the laws that affect the 830,000 Americans who are arrested annually under existing marijuana laws.Video: The Hemp Cure
In seven short videos, Rick Simpson tells the story of a cure that is based on the hemp plant. Since hemp got in the way of DuPont's Nylon in the early part of the 20th century, the plant has been classified as dangerous, a drug, and growers have been punished for seeding it. Apart from obvious uses of hemp as fiber and seeds as a nutritious food, the plant itself can be processed into an extract that has - according to Simpson and many who tried - curative properties. Yes, the flowers can also be smoked and - like with tabacco and alcohol - there are effects on your mental state. Hardly enough of a reason to prohibit the use of a curative substance!
Video: Rick Simpson's CROSS-CANADA CRUSH CANCER TOUR CANCELLED
Rick Simpson, the man who cured cancer with hemp oil and the force behind RUN FROM THE CURE: THE RICK SIMPSON STORY, was to go across Canada to raise awareness of hemp medicine to all Canadians. In this video, Rick Simpson addresses the lack of funding, the resources that would be required to do a country-wide tour. He gives an overview of current plans and provides an insight into the larger picture of hemp prohibition and who profits from it.
posted by Sepp Hasslberger on Tuesday June 7 2005
updated on Saturday December 25 2010URL of this article:
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2005/06/07/medical_marijuana_us_supreme_court_upholds_federal_prohibition.htm
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