In some sort of bizarre word game today the Obama Administration said that marijuana laws are a states rights issue. This coming from a presidency that has shown nothing but contempt for states rights. Of course, this was in opposition to a Republican led effort to meddle in the affairs of Washington DCs new marijuana decriminalization policies.
Republicans, who claim to stand by a platform of less government interference, and states rights, seem to think it is the governments place to dictate marijuana policy to states.
The White House took the conservative position of stating that The Obama administration believes marijuana policy is a states’ rights issue. An odd statement considering the Obama administration is launching more raids on medical pot than the Bush administration did.
In a recent Rolling Stone interview with President Obama, the President justified the raids by saying: I can’t ask the Justice Department to say, “Ignore completely a federal law that’s on the books.” The Controlled Substances Act of 1970 places marijuana into the schedule 1 classification meaning it has no known medical value. If marijuana was simply to be moved to a schedule 2 classification (like cocaine) it would be perfectly legal to be grown, cultivated, and used for medical purposes in this country. Would it take an act of congress to move marijuana from schedule 1 to schedule 2? No. According to the law itself, under Part B: 811 (a) … the Attorney General may by rule add to such a schedule or transfer between such schedules any drug or other substance (emphases added).
What that means is the Surgeon General, Rear Admiral Boris Lushniak, who was named to the position by President Obama on July 16th, 2013, could create marijuana reform simply by writing a note saying “Marijuana has shown considerable medical value, and I am therefore moving it from Schedule 1 to Schedule 2.” And poof… medical marijuana would be legal in all 50 states, and then it would truly be a “States Rights” issue as to weather the state wants to re-criminalize it.
It is really sad that this level of politics is going on while sick people are being denied their medicine, and young adults who where force fed pharmaceuticals during their adolescents are now having their records tarnished for being caught with an herb.
