Pubdate: Tue, 06 Jan 2015
Source: Spokesman-Review (Spokane, WA)
Copyright: 2015 The Spokesman-Review
Contact:  http://www.spokesman.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/417

OUTDATED POT LAW AGAIN STIRS COSTLY TROUBLE

The outdated Controlled Substances Act of 1970 continues to act as a 
gateway to lunacy, with the latest example being a lawsuit filed by 
the states of Oklahoma and Nebraska against neighboring Colorado over 
the legalization of recreational marijuana.

The offended attorneys general fought hard for federalism in warding 
off the Affordable Care Act's bid to widen Medicaid eligibility in 
the two states. Butt out, said Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt 
and Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning, and the U.S. Supreme Court 
ultimately agreed. Now, they want the same court to intervene in 
Colorado and throttle its legal pot industry.

They filed suit last month, claiming the spillover from Colorado's 
legal market is causing the cops in their states to go to great time 
and expense (both unspecified) to bust people in possession of pot 
purchased across their borders.

Of course, they have the option of not chasing down pot tourists, but 
they've bought into the notion that marijuana is a serious threat. 
Oklahoma is also considering a ban on hooded sweatshirts, which 
offers a glimpse into how fraught with fear and casual with liberty 
the state has become.

Allaying fears - real or imagined - can be expensive, and the two 
states say Colorado's legal market is "draining their treasuries." 
But even if Pruitt and Bruning got their way, the black market would 
remain. The two states would prefer the feds crack down on Colorado, 
but the Justice Department, in a nod to the 23 states that have 
legalized marijuana in some form, has backed off.

Washington has been granted the same leeway as Colorado, but we've 
been spared the paranoid neighbors. Washington Attorney General Bob 
Ferguson says his office will support Colorado, if necessary.

The problem, as we have stated many times, is that the federal law 
that Oklahoma and Nebraska cite is ridiculous. It suggests marijuana 
is as dangerous as heroin, more dangerous than cocaine and meth, and 
has no medicinal value. In the five decades since its passage, we've 
learned that these judgments are false.

In fact, research published in the August edition of the journal JAMA 
Internal Medicine shows that the occurrence of fatal opiate overdoses 
declined in 13 states after they legalized medical marijuana. It 
appears that marijuana enhances the effects of painkillers, which 
means lower doses may be prescribed.

Science, not fear, ought to drive this debate.

If marijuana were rescheduled as equivalent to prescription drugs, 
banks could begin accepting pot proceeds. That would be safer than 
cash-and-carry commerce. More states would legalize or decriminalize 
the drug, and law enforcement could redirect their energies to more 
important matters. And purported federalists could drop their 
nuisance lawsuits and return to backing states' rights.

Constitutional scholar Randy Barnett, a foe of federal overreach, has 
called Pruitt and Bruning "fair weather federalists," but hypocrisy 
is the least of it. The federal law continues to enable costly and 
counterproductive activity.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom