States Rights: The State Of Legal Marijuana

States Rights: The State Of Legal Marijuana

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Home Page > News and Society > Politics > States Rights: The State Of Legal Marijuana

States Rights: The State Of Legal Marijuana

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Posted: Mar 21, 2011 |Comments: 0
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The United States of America is a union that conists of 50 vast and different states. The State of the Union speech is the President of the United States of America giving his observations and report on how the union of the 50 states is functioning. (and if you are really counting you must take into consideration Washington DC and some territories that America presides over such as Guam). The states the union contain, in certain situations and areas, govern themselves. They set the tone and climate for the administration of some or all of public resources in reguards to labour and wealth. America is currently in the midst of a liberatarian movement that is increases in intensity as states seek to wrest power to enforce public policy in certain areas and situation in lieu of the federal government.

The past 3 years have seen several clashes between the different state governments and Washington DC. The State of Arizona is currently engaged in a very heated struggle with The Obama Administration about the enforcement of security at the Arizona – Mexico border. Texas has also expressed its own needs and interests in dictating policy of the security of their own Mexican border. Violence is on the rise on the borders of these states where the vast desert acts a a portal for the smuggling of illegal drugs, illegal immigration and outirght human trafficing.

The battleground of states rights vs federal government has not seen a brighter stage than the issue of same sex marriage. The debate is personal and intense and crosses many different areas of contention. The issue was brought to the forefront of the American consciousness by George W. Bush as he sought to turn the tide of the 2004 United States presidential election against the Democratic party nominee John Kerry. Bush stated that marriage should be defined as the union of a man and a woman and that same sex marriages should not be recognized in The United States. The ensuing years have seen some states legalize same sex marriage, many others vote their states same sex marriage down and countless debates and court cases going back and forth in this battlefield in the war for political power between the states and Washington DC.

The next potential area of conflict in this never ending union dance with federal governement will be legal marijuana in America. The growing consensus is that it is just a matter of time before one of the states in the union, with the smart money betting on California, Colorado or Michigan, will end their prohibition of marijuana and legalize its recreational possession and use. Medical Marijuana is already out of the closet and never to return. City and state governemts that have legalized medical marijuana are already proifitting and allocating funds received in the taxes generated and this revenue is not going to be eliminated now that the states have had a taste of this new windfall.

California attempted to legalize recreational use in November 2010 with Proposition 19. Voted down by a 54-46% margin in a midterm election, the pieces were not completely in place for victory. The issue will come back with a vengeance in 2012 and early observations are that the new proposition will be written with a more inclusive attitude toward the state’s legal marijuana culture and include the concerns of growers, defense lawyers and dispensaries. The 2012 election will be a presidential election and thus will include a bigger turnout of the younger voters of the population, the very core of the populace that most voting registration drives aim at and coincindentally which happen to be a huge block of the yes to recreational marijuana base.

The federal governemnt seems to be in a quandry if one of these states actually does break away from the “Just Say No” federal stance on all recreational drugs except tobacco and alcohol. The push came to shove last October when it looked like Proposition 19 had a chance to pass in California, forcing Obama Administration Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske to issue the following statement on recreational legal marijuana:

“To test the idea of legalizing and taxing marijuana, we only need to look at already legal drugs–alcohol and tobacco. We know that the taxes collected on these substances pale in comparison to the social and health care costs related to their widespread use.”

Clearly the federal government is not on board with legal marijauna in California sponsoring the Super Bowl Half Time Show in 2020. How does a state’s citizens respond to this statement when their population votes on an initiative that could help their economy to recover from the most serious state economic crisis in its history? Does the federal government have a right to tell a private citizen that even though they have voted on a principle in majority that they still do not have the freedom to exercise this right as affored to them through popular vote?

Thomas Jefferson, was quoted as saying “The government which governs least, governs best”. The Jefferson authored Decleration of Independence, the very document that the federal government is founded on, declares that we all have “certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” The federal government will seek to deny citizens rights they have afforded to themselves through their state’s popular vote, clinging to aging and archaic rhetoric. The stance and posturing does not govern least and it certainly does not govern best; denying their citizens the life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness that it professes its very existence for.



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Robert Carr -
About the Author:

Robert Carr is an activist in the movement to outright legalize marijuana in California.  Visit

legalmarijuanacalifornia.com for more information.

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Article Tags:
medical marijauna, legal marijuana, federal government, irs, states rights, state government gil kerlikowske, recreational marijuana

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