cannabisnews.com: War on Pot is a Raid on States' Rights





War on Pot is a Raid on States' Rights
Posted by FoM on December 12, 2001 at 15:39:35 PT
By Thomas D. Elias, Special To The Examiner
Source: San Francisco Examiner 
When he ran for president, George W. Bush told one campaign audience after another the federal government is too big and too active. He even suggested once that states -- not the feds -- should decide whether to legalize marijuana.  Bush's attorney general, John Ashcroft, was an even more adamant advocate of states' rights during his years in the Senate, advocating among other things for states to make their own voting rights laws.
 This talk seemed academic at the time. But no longer, as medical marijuana patients around California prepare for an expected spate of raids in addition to two conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration in October.  Under Bush, states' rights appear to go no farther than the right to do whatever the president and Ashcroft like. It's an attitude that runs counter to a longtime legal tradition allowing states to grant their citizens more rights than the federal Constitution, but never less.  It's also a typical attitude for attorneys general everywhere. When Republican Dan Lungren was California attorney general, he was lambasted for refusing to enforce laws against housing discrimination. Conservatives knock current Democratic state Attorney General Bill Lockyer for allegedly failing to enforce some anti-affirmative action provisions of the 1996 Proposition 209.  Now Ashcroft is sending his DEA agents after AIDS patients on pot and directs other DEA officers to go after doctors in assisted suicide cases in Oregon.  Both actions run counter to the clear wishes of voters. Yes, Californians three years ago rejected an initiative to allow assisted suicide. But they passed Proposition 215 by a wide margin in 1996, trying to legalize medical use of marijuana whenever doctors recommend it. And Oregon voters in 1998 opted to allow doctors to help terminally ill patients end their lives, if that's what the patients want.  So the will of the voters doesn't mean much to the Bush administration, in spite of its supposed stance on states' rights. For Ashcroft, states' rights apparently go no farther than allowing racial discrimination in some places.  So his agents flouted California law by uprooting and confiscating 400 marijuana plants from the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Center in West Hollywood, also hauling off computers containing names, addresses and medical histories of the center's 960 member patients.  Earlier, other agents took 5,000 personal medical records of pot-using patients from the files of Dr. Marion Fry's California Medical Research Center in the El Dorado County town of Cool.  THE rationale for both raids was a June ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court against the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Club, which claimed that a combination of medical necessity and Proposition 215 justified its continued operation despite a federal court injunction ordering it to close.  The implication of that ruling is that federal decisions proclaiming marijuana a dangerous substance overrule any state action to legalize pot for any reason. Besides California, Arizona, Oregon, Washington, Maine, Colorado, Nevada and the District of Columbia all have tried to legalize medical use of the weed.   Doesn't matter, say Ashcroft and Bush. "I think they care about states' rights when it serves their political ends," Erwin Chemerinsky, a University of Southern California law professor, told a reporter. "But I think that's been true throughout American history."   And politicians' attitudes about states' rights don't often matter much to ordinary citizens. But thousands of medical-pot patients now fear they might be prosecuted because their medical records have been taken. Thousands more with ailments from AIDS to migraine headaches know their records might be confiscated in the next raid, even if they're in full compliance with Proposition 215 and any local medical-pot guidelines.  Even San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan's declaration that his city would be a sanctuary for medical pot users is likely meaningless in the face of Ashcroft's policy. "They know they're breaking the federal law," Richard Meyer, spokesman for the DEA's San Francisco office, has said. "Our job is to enforce the federal drug laws."  The upshot is that the days of easy access to medical marijuana may soon be over for most Californians who depend on it. That apparently will be true as long as the Bush administration stays in office, no matter what voters may think or do.Source: San Francisco Examiner (CA)Author: Thomas D. Elias, Special To The ExaminerPublished: December 11, 2001Copyright: 2001 San Francisco Examiner Contact: letters examiner.com Website: http://www.examiner.com/ Related Articles & Web Site:Medicinal Cannabis Research Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/research.htmUS Marijuana Clinics Raided in Crackdown http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11328.shtml The Feds Crack Down -- on Medical Marijuanahttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11283.shtml 
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Comment #7 posted by Lehder on December 14, 2001 at 12:45:03 PT
don't fight for *my* soul, Mr. (P)resident
Absolutely everything that Bush blames on drugs is a direct consequence of the war on drugs. I believe that our hijacked government knows this and that it seeks to destabilize, polarize and conquer the American people in exactly the same way that it destroys foreign cultures for economic exploitation. If anyone doubts me, then take a good look at the Enron fiasco. If anyone thinks that Bush has come to us to benefit and not exploit the American people, then take another look at the Enron fiasco. 
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Comment #6 posted by FoM on December 14, 2001 at 12:33:14 PT
News Brief from The Associated Press
This is all I've found so far but will look for an expanded article and then post it directly.
President Signs Anti-Drug Measure
Friday December 14 2:17 PM ET 
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush said Friday that drug users aid terrorists who get their money from global trafficking in narcotics. ``If you quit drugs, you join the fight against terrorism,'' he said. 
Bush offered a new argument in the fight against drugs while signing a bill to expand a federal anti-drug program over the next five years. 
``Drug abuse threatens everything, everything that is best about our country,'' he said. ``It breaks the bond between parent and child. It turns productive citizens into addicts. It transforms schools into places of violence and chaos. It makes playgrounds into crime scenes. It supports gangs at home.'' 
``And abroad, it's important for Americans to know that trafficking of drugs finances the world of terror, sustaining terrorists,'' the president said. 
The administration has linked the al-Qaida network in Afghanistan to heroin trafficking. The terrorist group, led by Osama bin Laden, is suspected in the Sept. 11 attacks on America. 
The bill signed by Bush expands the Drug-Free Communities Support Program, which helps community groups reduce illegal drugs. The program's budget is about $50 million, and would almost double in five years under the bill. 
``Over time, drugs rob men, women and children of their dignity and of their character,'' Bush said. ``Illegal drugs are the enemies of ambition and hope and when we fight against drugs we fight for the souls of our fellow Americans.'' 
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Comment #5 posted by FoM on December 14, 2001 at 11:23:37 PT
Tomato News
Maybe it's time to change the name of the web site to www.tomatonews.com. They would probably make tomatoes illegal then. Just an idea? Lord have mercy on us down here in a country that is not free one little bit.
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Comment #4 posted by FoM on December 14, 2001 at 11:17:28 PT
greenfox
Hey it's a bummer isn't it? I saw the guy with no hair on his head named Ari or close to that say something about the money being increased at that press conference he has almost if not every darn day and I turned the news off and music on. I'll look for an article. I understand.
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Comment #3 posted by greenfox on December 14, 2001 at 10:55:42 PT
We're f**ked. 
I just got finished watching Bushy Wushy's latest speech and now we are DOUBLING the money on this war on drugs from 50 MILLION DOLLARS a year to (that's right) ONE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS!!!!!!!!!!!! (sound familiar?)This sucks. I am so sad and pissed off at my country. Times like this I wish .... hmm.. oh well, why rant? It doesn't matter. The power mums of amerikkka will support Bush no matter what. People, prepare for the worst. Thought the late 80s were bad? You ain't seen nothin' yet. Prepare for BUSHY WUSHY PART II!!!!!!!!!!!fuck this country. And fOm sorry for the swearing, but I am sooo sad. :-gf
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Comment #2 posted by john wayne on December 13, 2001 at 06:58:23 PT
jesus hates marijuana
Ashcroft knows it is so!
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Comment #1 posted by firedog on December 13, 2001 at 04:36:07 PT
Zone them out of town!
It would be a real shame if San Francisco were to pass a zoning law that prohibited the DEA from continuing operations in that city.Granted, they'd probably set up shop somewhere else close by... but it would send a very strong message. And it might disrupt things for a while, at least.
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