Pubdate: Tue, 07 Jun 2005
Source: Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO)
Copyright: 2005, Denver Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.rockymountainnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/371
Source: Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO)
Author: Paul Campos
Note: Paul Campos is a professor of law at the University of Colorado
Cited: Gonzales v. Raich ( www.angeljustice.org/ )
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/opinion.htm (Opinion)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Raich (Raich v. Gonzales)

HIGH COURT HAS GONE POTTY

The life of the law, Oliver Wendell Holmes famously remarked, has not
been logic but experience.

When it comes to marijuana, the life of the law has been neither logic
nor experience, but rather sheer unadulterated craziness. Another
chapter in that disgraceful history was written this week, when the
Supreme Court refused to overturn a federal law ordering the national
government to ignore state laws that allow doctors to prescribe
marijuana for their patients.

The six justices who voted to uphold the law did so on the basis of
this argument: Congress has the power to regulate interstate commerce.
If states make it legal for individuals or organizations to cultivate
marijuana for medicinal purposes, some of the drug may end up on the
black market. Once it's in the stream of commerce, there's no way to
ensure that it won't cross state lines. Hence the federal government
has the authority to enforce federal laws that make growing a single
marijuana plant in one's own house, for personal medical use under the
supervision of a doctor, a federal crime.

This ruling comes from the same court that decided not too long ago
that the federal government doesn't have the power to make it a crime
to possess a handgun in a school zone, because such a law doesn't
affect interstate commerce.

Of course another distinction between these two cases is that no one
was hurt by a handgun in the United States last year, while marijuana
kills 410,000 people annually. (Following precedents established
recently by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director
Julie Gerberding, I'm simply fabricating whatever statistics will
support insane public policies).

Nothing captures the extent to which we are still in the grip of
reefer madness than this sentence from Justice Antonin Scalia's
concurrence: "Congress has undertaken to extinguish the interstate
market in Schedule I controlled substances, including marijuana. The
Commerce Clause unquestionably permits this."

Sometimes it's important to step back from ordinary-sounding
statements, so as to appreciate how flat-out crazy they really are.

First, consider what a gigantic edifice of lies must be maintained for
government officials to continue to classify marijuana as a Schedule I
drug. A Schedule I drug must have a high potential for abuse, no
recognized medical use, and no safe use under medical supervision.
Marijuana does not have a high potential for abuse in comparison to
substances such as alcohol and tobacco, it has a number of recognized
medical uses, and it's almost perfectly safe when used under medical
supervision. These are not opinions; they are facts.

These facts are worth repeating, because it's always worth pointing
out that the federal government is telling lies to the public, and
that politicians who traffic in these lies should be called to account
for doing so.

Second, let us ponder for a moment the Alice in Wonderland universe in
which "Congress has undertaken to extinguish the interstate market in
marijuana." Despite ferocious government repression, millions of
Americans continue to use marijuana on a regular basis. The only risks
such use poses for the vast majority of these people are the risks
inherent in breaking laws - stupid and immoral laws that will continue
to be treated with the contempt they deserve.

Even if marijuana were dangerous enough to justify criminalizing its
uncontrolled use, it would still be preposterous to ban its use as a
medical treatment, in a nation where endless assortments of far more
dangerous drugs are prescribed by the millions every day.

In the long run, nothing undercuts respect for legal authority more
than the kind of moral cowardice that allows laws of this sort to be
enacted and enforced. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake