States’ rights and medicinal marijuana

Federalism?

Yeah, I think I remember learning about that. Wasn’t it designed to check the… Federalism?

Yeah, I think I remember learning about that. Wasn’t it designed to check the power of the federal government? Only give the federal government certain well-defined powers and reserve everything else for the states. That way, people of different states can act, by popular consent, in accordance with their different views without fear of an oppressive federal hand from far away coming to deny them what they feel is right. Yeah, that was a good idea.

In 1996, the people of California put a referendum on the ballot, Proposition 215. The referendum passed. It became officially legal under state law for seriously ill people to grow and use marijuana with their doctors’ consent.

Many doctors began to suggest marijuana to help their patients. In response, federal prosecutors tried to seize the licenses of all doctors who proscribed marijuana. But they were denied that ability in an appellate court last October when, according to The New York Times, the court ruled in favor of the doctors. It said, basically, it is not the courts place to tell doctors what is or isn’t good for their patients. To do so would violate their First Amendment rights.

After all this, Ed Rosenthal, self-proclaimed “marijuana guru” and author of several books on the subject, decided to start growing medical marijuana. He got permission from the city of Oakland and was officially titled “officer of the city” in accordance with Proposition 215. He planned to not sell, but give cuttings of his plants to the terminally ill. The plants he grew were only intended for medicinal purposes. They didn’t even have buds on them.

So, Ed is safe, right? He’s not doing anything wrong. He has permission from the city of Oakland to act within a law passed by popular referendum; a law with medical validity that has been confirmed by thousands of doctors across the country.

Surely Ed can’t go to jail, right?

Well, last Friday, according to the Associated Press, Rosenthal was convicted of marijuana cultivation and conspiracy charges by a federal jury. When he is sentenced in June, he will face anywhere from the minimum sentence of five years to life imprisonment. Rosenthal is 58 years old.

In his trial, he wasn’t even permitted to mention his motive in growing the marijuana. Nor was he permitted to mention his title of “officer of the city” in his defense. The federal government doesn’t recognize Proposition 215, or any of the medical marijuana laws now effective in nine states, as law.

Before the trial, a spokeswoman for California’s top prosecutor, Attorney General Bill Lockyer, summed up the issue when she told The New York Times, “State law legalizes medical marijuana and federal law makes marijuana illegal. Period.”

What we have here is the federal government using force to supercede the authority of California law because … uh, well I’m sure they have a good reason. A Supreme Court case declaring Proposition 215 illegal? No, they don’t have that.

Richard Meyer, a DEA spokesman, told the Associated Press, “There is no such thing as medical marijuana. We’re Americans first, Californians second.” And that, along with a few other nearly identical comments by Meyer, is all the justification I could find – after hours of research – that the federal government is giving for its actions.

Forget the fact that the medicinal benefits of marijuana have been proven time and time again. Forget that thousands of doctors across California feel marijuana can help their patients. Forget that the plants Rosenthal was growing didn’t even have buds on them and yet he was tried as a drug dealer.

Forget all that, pretend marijuana is evil and that it causes syphilis in all of the extended family of anyone who smokes it, it’s still wrong for the federal government not to recognize a modern state law passed by popular referendum.

Will Minton can’t understand why the federal government has gone out of its way to ensure that patients across the state of California don’t get the medicine their doctors recommend. He can be reached at Wminton@pittnews.com.