Pubdate: Sat, 07 Sep 2013
Source: Daily Review (Towanda, PA)
Copyright: 2013 The Daily Review
Contact:  http://www.thedailyreview.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1015

THE LONG ROAD OF DECRIMINALIZATION

The Justice Department has decided not to fight 20 states and the 
District of Columbia over laws they have adopted, in contradiction to 
federal law, to decriminalize medicinal and recreational marijuana use.

Attorney General Eric Holder characterized the decision as 
establishing priorities for use of limited resources. Indeed, those 
resources should be used to fight criminal conduct rather than legal 
conduct in states that have adopted the new laws, usually by referendum.

If the DOJ had decided to take on the laws in court, it likely would 
have won because federal laws generally supersede state or local laws 
when they conflict.

The decision, while making sense as a practical matter, leaves 
unanswered some of the national-level problems that will arise from 
legal pot use in some states.

For example, what happens if a worker in another state is fired for a 
positive drug test after legally smoking pot in Colorado or 
Washington? And, while the DOJ will not fight instate use, what 
happens when legally purchased pot is transported across state lines? 
What protections are in place to prevent legally produced marijuana, 
like legally produced cigarettes or alcoholic beverages, from 
becoming illegal black market contraband?

For now the DOJ decision spares the government the cost of 
litigation, but it doesn't resolve the many issues underlying the 
evolution of state-by-state pot laws. Eventually, they will have to 
be resolved at the federal level.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom