Synthetic or natural substance abuse is a real issue nationally. Generally speaking the State takes the lead in regulating and law enforcement. This is federalism, this is good...It should be the way most all of this is handled..however there is a “but” in this situation.
Common sense tells me that many of these illicit substances are imported and often by international crime syndicates so that brings in the national enforcement operations, ie: the Fed.
Decades ago when The Fed gov decided to ban alcohol consumption nationally, they had to increase the size of their enforcement arm to enforce the law. Later when alcohol was reinstated the Federal gov taxed the heck out of it, and assumed responsibility for tax enforcement but this time just for the tax reasons (commonly called revenuers in the south
Fans of legalized marijuana seem to think that making it legal will keep the fed out of it, but that’s just not true..The state will obviously carry the biggest load, but the feds are going to want their cut and you will most certainly have Feds enforcing tax laws just as they do on alcohol.
So that’s the historical and present reality.
It’s a lot more than a tenth amendment argument. The Constitution gives congress the right to tax, and that comes with enforcement.
The constitution also gives congress under article 1, the power to make law for the general welfare of the country.
While I would love to see the government reduced in size to the point of having congress meet twice a year or less, we all know that governments’ never get smaller on their own and our representatives will not do it in spite of our urging because they have a vested interest in it. They don’t appreciate term limits for the same reasons and just give us lip service on the issue...just enough to pacify the rabble. That same rabble keeps re-electing them. It’s a fact.
The reason I say that the government would need to be dismantled to get back to federalism is because it will never be able to accept reduction in size unless it can no longer take from the economy or borrow and it has to downsize because it can no longer function.
For that to occur, government would by definition be dismantled. It would die. But if you feed it again it will take whatever you give it. It knows no other way. It has create a self fulfilling growth program and like a computer on a machine it will run automatically until it’s shut down or runs out of input product.
I know it’s difficult to accept, but I’ve been watching this stuff for a long time. Each successive generation comes to age and thinks they can fix it.
By the time they are my age, they have figured out that it’s fruitless to think it can be reversed, and at best you can only slow it down, or kill it...
That’s what I meant, if that helps.
And over imports the feds do have Constitutional authority - but not over pot grown, transferred, and consumed without ever leaving its state of origin.
Fans of legalized marijuana seem to think that making it legal will keep the fed out of it, but that's just not true..The state will obviously carry the biggest load, but the feds are going to want their cut and you will most certainly have Feds enforcing tax laws just as they do on alcohol.
I don't know any legalization supporters who say the feds won't tax it.
The constitution also gives congress under article 1, the power to make law for the general welfare of the country.
No, it gives power to "lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises" in order to provide for a "general welfare" that the rest of Section 8 goes on to enumerate and thereby limit in scope. 'Father of the Constitution' James Madison addresses the misinterpretation you advance and debunks it with scathing decisiveness in Federalist 41.