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| State By State Legalization Destined for Chaos |
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Posted by CN Staff on August 29, 2006 at 06:53:52 PT By Chris Najmi, RW Contributing Writer Source: Retriever Weekly 
Colorado -- Last February, a ballot initiative known as the Alcohol-Marijuana Equalization Initiative was introduced in the state of Colorado. The text of this ballot initiative states the following: “Shall there be an amendment to section 18-18-406 (1) of the Colorado revised statutes making legal the possession of one ounce or less of marijuana for any person twenty-one years of age or older?” This initiative is something of a slap in the face to the federal government. The Controlled Substances Act (CSA) of 1970 establishes how possession, manufacture, and distribution of drugs are to be regulated by the federal government. The CSA classifies marijuana as a schedule 1 controlled substance, the penalties for possession/distribution range from 5 years imprisonment for possession, to life sentences for multiple trafficking charges. If there were a constitutional scholar in the room, they might point out that nowhere in the Constitution is this an expressed power of the federal government and therefore by the 10th amendment drug enforcement should be a power reserved to the states. Although there is a debate to be made here, (we’ll get to that in a moment) the CSA spells out precisely why it is the federal governments responsibility to regulate drugs. Namely that intrastate drug distribution is associated with distribution/transport across state lines and moreover, drugs produced and distributed intrastate are indistinguishable from drugs produced and distributed interstate. Since it is the federal government's duty to regulate interstate commerce, it is therefore the federal government's duty to regulate drug possession, distribution and manufacture. Subsequently, the state of Colorado has no right to de-criminalize marijuana possession since it is not their job to regulate drugs. Now, to re-examine that debate we touched on above. If the people and politicians of Colorado really want to de-criminalize marijuana possession, they need to start at the CSA. Several ways to do this would range from trying to demonstrate marijuana’s medical benefits to get its schedule changed, to filing suit against the U.S. government as was done in Raich v. Ashcroft (wherein the Supreme Court decided in favor of the U.S. government that the CSA was an allowed use of the commerce clause), to crafting a constitutional amendment that assigns the job of drug regulation explicitly to the states. Good luck, by the way, trying to get 50 separate states to create anything that looks even vaguely like a consistent drug regulation code. All of the above methods of attacking the CSA have the advantage of being legal, and the advantage of confronting the real issue of government regulation rather than the symptom of marijuana. Furthermore, there are several practical reasons why Colorado should not introduce a ballot initiative like this in their state. Assuming that it passes, it would lure a percentage of the state’s population into a false sense of security. Just because the state of Colorado chooses not to enforce the CSA, does not mean that the federal government in the form of the FBI or DEA will decide to magically ignore Colorado’s marijuana users/dealers as they continue their war on drugs. It will likely also introduce unintended consequences for the state of Colorado. The federal government cannot suffer the states to pick and choose which federal laws they enforce; non-uniform enforcement threatens the consistency that a federal regulation hopes to bring to the matter. It is possible that the federal government might do something like deny Colorado highway funds until Colorado decides to start enforcing the CSA again. To conclude, the ballot initiative in Colorado, although perhaps well meaning, is ill-conceived. The state of Colorado has no authority to de-criminalize any sort of drug use and as such should remove the ballot initiative without vote. Chris Najmi is the SGA Director of Financial Services who enjoys taking hard stances on issues in order to create a little controversy. Source: Retriever Weekly (UMBC, MD Edu) Related Articles & Web Site: Safer Choice Denver DEA Rep: Don't Legalize It Legalizing Pot Would Hurt Kids, and Here's Why Colorado Voters To Consider MJ Legalization Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help |
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