[Boogieman]

“Since the 1930s, federal law has declared the use, sale or distribution of marijuana illegal.”

Not true. People back in the 1930s still understood the federal government had no legal authority to do such a thing without passing a constitutional amendment. So all they did back then was make it illegal to sell marijuana without a proper tax stamp, and then simply refused to give anyone the tax stamp.

It wasn’t until the 70s that selling marijuana actually became illegal in and of itself, rather than a ginned up tax violation.

[Svartalfiar]

Not true. People back in the 1930s still understood the federal government had no legal authority to do such a thing without passing a constitutional amendment. So all they did back then was make it illegal to sell marijuana without a proper tax stamp, and then simply refused to give anyone the tax stamp.

It wasn’t until the 70s that selling marijuana actually became illegal in and of itself, rather than a ginned up tax violation.

The FedGov needed a Constitutional Amendment to ban alcohol, what's so different about any random plant? And those tax stamps are bullshit anyway, unless they were products coming in from overseas. Where's the FedGov authority to tax or do anything about stuff that stays entirely within a State?


It makes me think of obama and how he and now Trump selectively enforce our federal laws. Don’t get me wrong, I love President Trump but this selective enforcement crap just grates on me.

And therein lies one of the big issues with our current system. Congress has gone so far outside the bounds of their powers, there's so much stuff that simply can't be enforced. I forget where this comes from, but supposedly everyone commits about three felonies a day, without even knowing it. If FedGov can be pushed back into its Constitutional cage, you wouldn't have this issue: there'd be enough Federal people to properly investigate/prosecute real crimes, and you'd also only have Federal crimes that truly were crimes, not kiddie stuff that no one cares if there's prosecutorial discretion or not.