Oakland council should heed feds' warnings on pot

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 2/4/11 | Chip Johnson

[SmithL]

I supported Oakland's initial foray into the large-scale cannabis cultivation business because it placed the city in the catbird's seat in the event of the passage of Proposition 19, the recreational marijuana use initiative on the November ballot.

Had the measure been approved by voters, the city's plan to allow industrial-size pot farms, creating a new revenue stream ripe with tax benefits, would have been a wise decision.

Because even while the Oakland City Council said the measure was approved for the exclusive use of licensed medical marijuana dispensaries, the city would certainly have been well positioned to take advantage had a new law been approved.

But the council's decision to forge on under the claim that large pot farms fit beneath the aegis of the state's medical marijuana laws is a bridge too far for federal authorities.

Still, the Oakland City Council moved closer to another ordinance this week with a plan introduced by Councilwoman Desley Brooks that would allow five new dispensaries, each with its own industrial-size pot farms of up to 50,000 square feet. . . .

[SmithL]

When governments pick and choose which laws to obey or ignore, they can hardly be surprised when their citizens start making their own choices about their laws.

[Wurlitzer]

"When governments pick and choose which laws to obey or ignore, they can hardly be surprised when their citizens start making their own choices about their laws.

Absolutely true and both the federal government and the state are violating the laws of the land.

While you can never find someone more ANTI-DRUG then me (I hate them, all who use them and all who sell them), I have a problem with the fake "War On Drugs" as it is being run by the feds. Make sure you understand this before you read further.

Why did it take a Constitutional Amendment to ban alcohol yet no such Constitutional Amendment to ban drugs?

The "Case Law" scum of the earth lawyers and law schools have made our Constitution a worthless rag to be stuffed into what ever position the statists want it to be this week.

If the supreme law of the land were to be intended to be modified simply by "Case Law" then the maggots with their law degrees will have to explain why the founders even bothered with the Amendment process.

It is impossible to be a law abiding person in a country where the founding documents no longer have a foundation. What laws of the hundreds of thousand laws on the books do we obey when the shifting sands undermine the founding documents and even the black robed clowns at the USSC cannot do better than constant 5-4 decisions. We have a legal system but no justice system.

[sten]

how would this not be federal preemption?

you know, the charge the feds are suing the gov of AZ and sheriff arpaio with...

[Brad from Tennessee]

[. . .a plan introduced by Councilwoman Desley Brooks that would allow five new dispensaries, each with its own industrial-size pot farms of up to 50,000 square feet. . . .]

Marijuana cultivation in California has developed into such an advanced science that 50,000 square feet would seem more than adequate for each dispensary. And why not grow all the pot in one big location? Apparently Oakland officials plan to stockpile the surplus produce, sell it to clinics across the state, or allow it to leak into the black market.

Though this operation could be adjudged “organized crime” under federal statutes, Oakland is creating the infrastructure necessary for the state to benefit under full legalization. If federal marijuana laws were repealed states could—by contract—grow, process, manufacture, package and distribute a quality product.

Had the recent California marijuana ballot proposition been approved by voters, it would have created a legal free-for-all with elements of the Mexican drug cartels ending up the winners. The result would be violence, corruption and anarchy. I don't smoke pot and have never advocated its legalization. The medicinal marijuana program in California has turned into a huge racket. But I'm beginning to believe that if you can't beat them, seize control of their industry and tax the hell out of it. And deny the Mexican mafia--60 percent of whose profits come from pot imports to the U.S.--any of the market.