There was nothing illegal about these weapons. It would have been illegal for Stewart to possess a working rifle, as he had a previous felony conviction. It would have been illegal for him to sell a working rifle as a manufacturer or dealer, since he had no federal license. But the buyers were doing nothing illegal in buying the rifles, and the rifles themselves were entirely legal.

I see how this works, create a total ban on marijuana and make possession an arrestable offense and make cultivation a felony. In effect, the government has removed and outlawed a market for any citizen to purchase marijuana. YET they argue a homegrown user does affect commerce because patients would otherwise have to purchase their marijuana? Excuse me while I scream and rotate my head in circles like the Exorcist.

Perhaps the government is suggesting nay demanding that they should have bought marijuana from the black market where they would have greater odds of being robbed, cheated, and possibly arrested for trafficking in Schedule 1 substances.

Is the black market now to be considered legitimate commerce?

Oh and in the link below I think I read that a Marijuana Tax Stamp is considered drug paraphernalia. Perhaps Operation Pipe Dreams forgot to issue arrest warrants for our own government.

I stumbled upon this very informative website over the weekend:

http://www.potbust.com/book.htm

A ridiculous ruling that essentially gives the feds control over anything that can be sold. With cannabis, they are also saying they can "regulate" an illegal bleack market.

DEPLOYED SOLDIERS USED DRUGS

34 Troops Who Tested Positive Were Sent Overseas Anyway

Pubdate: Sun, 16 Nov 2003 Source: Dallas Morning News (TX)

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dallas/nation/stories/111603dnnatdrugtest.5580b.html

Deployed soldiers used drugs

34 troops who tested positive were sent overseas anyway

07:55 PM CST on Saturday, November 15, 2003

Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa – Twenty-one Iowa National Guard troops who tested positive for drug use on the eve of their deployment were sent overseas anyway, despite the Army's "zero tolerance" policy. Now the Army must decide how to deal with them when they return.

Officials at Fort McCoy, Wis., which serves as a multistate jumping-off point for Reserve and Guard troops, said about 13 soldiers from other states who tested positive for drugs were also sent to Iraq.

Fort McCoy officials said some of the soldiers apparently used the drugs with the intention of getting caught and being sent home.

"On a certain level, it would be perverse to throw people out because of their misconduct, when other people who did not engage in that misconduct are having to put their lives on the line," said Eugene Fidell, a military law expert with the National Institute of Military Justice.

Others who tested positive were deemed by medical officials to be infrequent users who posed no risk to themselves or their fellow soldiers in the field.

"A positive on their drug test is not going to keep them here, unless there's a dependency issue," said Linda Fournier, a Fort McCoy spokeswoman. "These units have to have so many people to go overseas."

Spokesmen for the Army and the Department of Defense told The Des Moines Register this week that they were unaware of the problem.

The prospect of punishing troops who return after months of military service has lawyers at Army bases pacing the hallways. Under current policy, soldiers with three or more years of service often are discharged for positive drug tests. Younger soldiers sometimes opt for rehabilitation at the discretion of their commanders.

"The official policy is you don't have a whole lot of latitude," said Mark O'Hara, a 31-year Coast Guard veteran and spokesman for the Judge Advocates Association in Washington, D.C.

"Maybe it's going to be tough if the guy comes back a hero,"

"Nevertheless, the government will likely argue that home-grown use does affect commerce, since patients would otherwise have to purchase their marijuana."

Which would also mean that people growing their own, and not purchasing illegal Black Market MJ, would then have cash available to purchase legal, officially sanctioned, goods and services. These growers could even spend the money saved by growing their own on some of those legal machine gun kits to protect their kids from the Goose Step PD while the kids are in school. Those home growers could even "ask their doctor" for those advertised recreational drugs synthesized by pharma americana.

I'd rather be a farmer than a pharma.

When I read about Buddhism there was the thought that even the movement of a grain of sand on the beach has some effect on everything. Here we have some upside down thinking again. No, it may not be Interstate commerse, but it could have been. It is stupidity from Fantasyland that makes everything interstate commerce because you could have had a V-8.