Pubdate: Thu, 22 Apr 2010
Source: Boulder Weekly (CO)
Copyright: 2010 Boulder Weekly
Contact:  http://www.boulderweekly.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/57
Author: Paul Danish

POT AT THE TEA PARTY

The Boston Tea Party, the original one, occurred on the night of
December 16, 1773, when the Sons of Liberty, some cunningly disguised
as Ward Churchill, threw 342 chests of British East India Company tea
into Boston Harbor.

But truth be told, as a date to hold a protest, December 16 sucks. So
it's not surprising that today's tea partiers have decided to focus
not on the date of the original party but on the point of the original
exercise - it was a tax protest - in picking a time for national
protesting. The tea partiers chose April 15, the day income taxes are
due.

Want to reduce government spending and get the deficit under control?
Eliminate the war on drugs.

But there is another tea party-like movement that holds rallies around
the nation in April, the one that holds promarijuana rallies on April
20. It, too, is a protest movement, and its direct civil disobedience
is in keeping with the spirit of the original tea party. And, since
one of the old slang names for marijuana was "tea," it even has a
plausible claim to the tea party name.

So, in the interest of disambiguation, as they say at Wikipedia, let's
refer to the first group as the 415 party and the second as the 420
party.

Although they may be loathe to admit it, the two tea parties have a
lot in common.

The 415 Tea Party's Contract from America calls for individual
liberty, limited government, lower taxes and government spending, and
economic freedom - all of which have been savaged by the war on drugs.

Indeed, it is hard to think of anything the government has undertaken
in the past 100 years that has done more to destroy personal freedom
and limited government and to waste tax dollars than the drug war.

Want to reduce government spending and get the federal deficit under
control? Eliminate the war on drugs and the federal government will
save at least $200 billion over the next 10 years. State and local
governments will save an additional $300 billion over that time frame.

Think government has become too big and too intrusive? Well, there are
plenty of 420 tea partiers who will agree, as will the approximately
750,000 Americans who are arrested every year for simple possession of
marijuana, which is a victimless crime.

Worried about government taking private property? A lot of 415 tea
partiers are, and so are plenty of 420 tea partiers, who could tell
you a thing or two about seizures of their cars, homes, and businesses
by the drug war's zerotolerance thugs.

Then there's this:

The first clause in the 415ers Contract from America is called
"Protect the Constitution." It would require each bill introduced in
Congress to identify the specific provision of the Constitution that
gives Congress the power to do what the bill does.

Now then, care to tell me what part of the Constitution gives the
federal government the authority to ban the possession, use,
cultivation, production, transportation and sale of marijuana - or any
other drug for that matter?

The word "marijuana" is nowhere to be found in the Constitution, and
neither is the word "drug." The Tenth Amendment says that the powers
not delegated to the United States by the Constitution are reserved to
the States or to the people. So if the Constitution doesn't explicitly
give the federal government the power to regulate drugs, where does it
get off doing so?

Well, actually, by using the commerce clause (found in Article 1,
Section 8, third paragraph down). It says Congress shall have power
"To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several
states, and with Indian tribes."

That's right, the constitutional authority for the federal prohibition
of marijuana (and all other recreational drugs) rests entirely on
Congress' power "to regulate commerce among the states." That power
extends to someone who grew a pot plant in the closet, on the theory
that even if the plant never crossed a state line or even left the
house, its mere existence affects the "web of commerce."

There's a reason why the commerce clause is referred to as the
"elastic clause" of the Constitution.

Still, in the case of the drug war the elasticity approaches that of a
bungee jump from low earth orbit.

The 415 tea partiers should be particularly interested in the use of
the commerce clause to allow the government to prohibit (or mandate)
personal conduct, because the same overreaching, intellectually
corrupt interpretations of the commerce clause used to justify the
drug war are being to justify the constitutionality of requiring
everyone in the country to buy health insurance.

The 415 tea partiers have, wisely, gone to great lengths to keep
culture war issues off their agenda. But with the war on drugs they
need to make an exception, because ignoring it (or worse supporting
it) makes a mockery of tea party core principles. When it comes to
out-of-control government intruding into personal freedom and
recklessly wasting hundreds of billions of dollars, the war on drugs
is the 500 pound gorilla in the tea room.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake