Posted on 06/06/2005 3:35:33 PM PDT by Wolfie
California Attorney General: Don't Panic Over Pot Ruling
San Francisco, Calif. -- Oregon stopped issuing medical marijuana cards after Monday's Supreme Court ruling, but people could apparently still get pot with a doctor's prescription there and in nine other states, and nobody in law enforcement appeared eager to make headlines arresting ailing patients. "People shouldn't panic. There aren't going to be many changes," California Attorney General Bill Lockyer said. "Nothing is different today than it was two days ago, in terms of real-world impact."
The high court ruled 6-3 that people who smoke marijuana because their doctors recommend it to ease pain can be prosecuted for violating federal drug laws.
The ruling does not strike down medical marijuana laws in California, Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont or Washington state. In many places over the past years, local authorities have shown no interest in arresting people who smoke pot for medical reasons.
It remains to be seen whether the federal Drug Enforcement Administration is planning a crackdown. The Justice Department was not commenting.
In Colorado, where 668 people hold a certificate allowing them to use and grow marijuana for pain relief under a constitutional amendment voters approved in 2000, federal prosecutors plan to keep their focus on large-scale drug rings, but if investigators come across marijuana in possession of certified state users, they will seize it — just as they have always done, said Jeff Dorschner, a U.S. Attorney's spokesman.
In Oregon, state officials said they would temporarily stop issuing medical marijuana cards to sick people.
"We want to proceed cautiously until we understand the ramifications of this ruling," said Grant Higginson, a public health officer who oversees Oregon's medical marijuana program.
California in 1996 became the first state to allow medical marijuana. On Monday, Gov. Arnold Schwarznegger, who has previously supported the use of pot by sick people, said only: "It is now up to Congress to provide clarity for not only California, but the other states that already have laws recognizing the use of marijuana for medical purposes."
Medical marijuana dispensaries have proliferated despite a 2001 Supreme Court ruling that rejected the "medical necessity" defense in marijuana cases.
Nationally, federal arrests of ailing patients who smoke pot have been rare, said Paul Armentano of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. NORML said the government has arrested more than 60 people in medical marijuana raids since September 2001.
Still, the ruling makes Valerie Corral nervous. Corral operates a 150-plant pot farm in Santa Cruz County, providing marijuana for free to about 165 seriously ill members. The high court's decision "leaves us protecting ourselves from a government that should be protecting us," she said.
It was "business as usual" at the San Francisco health department, spokeswoman Eileen Shields said. The county issues medical marijuana identification cards, valid for two years, to residents with a doctor's prescription.
The city has at least 43 medical cannabis dispensaries, far more than any other city in California, and makes no effort to collect data that federal authorities could use against them. "No one wants to create a nice, neat database" of pot users, she said.
"Dude. No worries. It's all good."
He then added, "Like don't cry over spilt bong water, man."
Thomas got it right.
Too bad he's on the losing side.
I've been waiting to read his opinion ... do you have a link?
Here have another toke.
The Federal governmnet grew by leaps and bounds today.
Isn't this kind of the way prohibition worked? The local officials didn't really care but it gave the Feds a cause to expand their enforcement agencies.
That has links to the opinions and a lot more.
Thank you.
What is the big deal with someone smoking a little weed? I don't understand how we as conservatives give a rip what someone smokes as long as they are not under the influence when driving or doing other things such as operating public transport.
We got to get a life on this one. The weed grows wild in the americas and there should be no jail or fines for usage of it.
Prohibition needed a constitutional ammendment to work, since it was recognized that the feds did not have the power to ban liquor in the states without one.
Hey, they're issuing drivers' licenses to illegal aliens... it's not like letting sick people get their pain relief is all that radical.
Gun owners, yes. Pot users, no.
Quote from Thomas: "If the Federal Government can regulate growing a half-dozen cannabis plants for personal consumption (not because it is interstate commerce, but because it is inextricably bound up with interstate commerce), then Congress? Article I powers?as expanded by the Necessary and Proper Clause?have no meaningful limits. Whether Congress aims at the possession of drugs, guns, or any number of other items, it may continue to "appropria[te] state police powers under the guise of regulating commerce." This says it all.
We must be really careful letting the government get this kind of power. The supremes have spoken, but that does not mean we have to listen, or obey. This coming from a non-pot smoker.
As the wise justice Thomas said, the issue is reigning in powers that the government wants over our lives. That is the essence of liberty. If the government does by stroke of pen what it could never get away with through force of arms, you still end up a slave in the end.
"If Congress can regulate this under the Commerce Clause, then it can regulate virtually anything--and the Federal Government is no longer one of limited and enumerated powers."
-Clarence Thomas
Too late. The government already has the power. Those who were "careful" about it over the last 80 years or so weren't very careful after all.
Essentially these people are registered marijuana users - that registry constitutes a road map for federal authorities to go to these people's homes and seize their crops. As with guns, the moral of the story is - don't allow registration.
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