Why California Should Legalize Marijuana (L.A. Times)
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A good friend of mine sent me an L.A. Times op-ed piece on why California really should legalize marijuana in the upcoming November ballot. I like how the author, Hanna Liebman Dershowitz, focuses on the issue of Federal involvement versus states rights and how it would only require an simple amendment to the Controlled Substances Act and not a constitutional amendment.
I’ll post some highlights below but highly recommend an entire read through. It’s not that long.
The federal-state dynamic concerning marijuana is not complicated. Under our system of federalism, both the states and the feds may prohibit commerce in marijuana, but neither is required to do so. Similarly, during alcohol prohibition (1920-33), commerce in alcoholic beverages was prohibited not only by federal law (the Volstead Act) but by the laws of most states. In 1923, New York repealed its state prohibition laws, leaving enforcement, for the remaining 10 years, entirely to the feds. California voters overwhelmingly did the same thing in 1932, one year before national prohibition was repealed.
The second ball is even more significant. Voter approval of Proposition 19 would shift to the feds the responsibility and burden of justifying marijuana prohibition in the first place. Now, the Washingtonians who have never questioned decades of anti-pot propaganda can explain to the people of California why we cannot be trusted to determine our state’s marijuana policies. Let them endorse the prohibition laws’ usefulness as a tool of oppressing minorities. Let them celebrate how minor marijuana violations cost people their jobs, their housing, custody of their kids, and entrap them permanently in vast criminal justice databases. Let them justify the utter hypocrisy of the legal treatment of alcohol and tobacco, as compared with the illegal treatment of marijuana. Let them tell us how many more people will have to be prosecuted and punished before marijuana is eradicated, how much that will cost, and where the money will come from.
Proposition 19′s success in November would put the feds in a quandary, yes, but it is a quandary of their own making. Unlike alcohol prohibition, which required a constitutional amendment, Congress could fix this easily with a simple amendment to the Controlled Substances Act allowing conduct legal under state law and respecting the right of states to regulate and tax the cannabis industry. After all, determining what is a crime is traditionally handled at the state level; indeed, federal prosecutions of drug possession make up a miniscule portion of overall drug arrests.
Additional Links
- California Voters Support Legalizing the Sale of Marijuana (yubanet.com)
- Black Community Split Over Legalizing Marijuana (npr.org)
- Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s Wrong-Headed Opposition to Marijuana Legalization (alternet.org)
- Dianne Feinstein Opposes Marijuana Legalization In California (huffingtonpost.com)
- Drug Czar Warns of “Black Market” for Marijuana (elections.firedoglake.com)
