cannabisnews.com: Speakout: Medical Marijuana Case Affects State





Speakout: Medical Marijuana Case Affects State
Posted by CN Staff on December 03, 2004 at 08:24:45 PT
By Robert J. Corry Jr., Special to the News
Source: Rocky Mountain News 
Assault weapons drawn, dozens of black-clad federal agents, in full riot gear and body armor, burst into a peaceful suburban Aurora home at the end of quiet cul-de-sac. No, they don't seek Osama bin Laden; instead, agents scour every nook and cranny for that pernicious threat to national security: state-approved medical marijuana, used by sick patients for relief from illness and pain, as Colorado voters intended.
Inside the home, agents find a terrified man who peacefully presents his state of Colorado-issued card and certificate, the government's permission for him to grow, possess and use medical marijuana. This gentle man, Dana K. May, suffers from reflex sympathetic dystrophy, a debilitating and potentially lethal nerve disease with pain so intense that some of its sufferers take their own lives. May, a clean-cut Republican and married father of three, describes the pain as though "my feet are in a deep fryer." A U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent snatches his state-issued card, arrogantly saying "we're DEA, we don't follow Colorado's Constitution." Then, federal agents trash May's home. Agents find what they seek: May's modest medical marijuana garden, tucked in his basement behind two locked doors. They rip out of the soil the plants painstakingly tended as a "labor of love" by a man who uses medical marijuana only as a last resort. May had spent seven years trying every possible prescription drug including synthetic marijuana, none of which were remotely effective for his intense pain, and all of which are expensive and unhealthy. May reluctantly turned to medical marijuana in 2001, only as a last resort for pain, only after his longtime, trusted doctor's recommendation, and only because medical marijuana is legal in Colorado, having been approved by voters in 2000. May's three kids fully understand that marijuana is OK only for Dad, only as medicine, and only by prescription and state approval. After seizing May's medicine, ruining his life for six months by bringing back the excruciating pain, the federal government eventually backs down in the face of a lawsuit, and return May's growing equipment. Now, May is growing again - this time at an undisclosed location - living in constant fear that federal agents again might break down his door for doing something the voters of Colorado approved. On Nov. 29, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a case that could end terrifying incidents like Dana May's. In the case of Ashcroft v. Raich, the high court will consider whether the federal government can enforce federal drug laws against medical marijuana patients operating under state laws. Currently, 11 states have legalized medical marijuana, and that number is expected to grow. At issue is the U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 8, the Commerce Clause, which grants Congress the power to "regulate Commerce . . . among the several States." The Constitution created a limited federal government that could act only within its enumerated powers, and did not have general authority to do anything it wanted. Somehow, the act of growing medicine in your own home, using it in your own home, never selling it, and never even taking it out of your own home, much less the State of Colorado, became "commerce among the several states." This case is important because if May's growing medical marijuana is not interstate commerce, then the federal government has no power to seize his medicine. But if his actions completely within his own home are interstate commerce, then everything is interstate commerce. The Founding Fathers' dream of a limited federal government of enumerated powers has become a twisted nightmare where the Constitution does not mean what it says, and where there is no limit to federal power because the Commerce Clause is meaningless. This case is larger than just medical marijuana; it concerns the creeping expansion of federal power at the expense of the voters of the state of Colorado who wish to govern themselves. Obviously, May's actions are not "commerce" and they are certainly not "interstate." Common sense and lower courts agree. The distinguished U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Alex Kozinski, a Ronald Reagan appointee, wrote in Conant v. Walters that "Medical marijuana, when grown locally for personal consumption, does not have any direct or obvious effect on interstate commerce. Federal efforts to regulate it considerably blur the distinction between what is national and what is local." Let's hope the Supreme Court will make this blurred distinction crystal clear. Robert J. Corry Jr. is a Denver attorney who represented Dana K. May in the case discussed above.Source: Denver Rocky Mountain News (CO)Author: Robert J. Corry Jr., Special to the NewsPublished: December 3, 2004Copyright: 2004 Denver Publishing Co.Contact: letters denver-rmn.com Website: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/Related Articles & Web Sites:Conant v. Waltershttp://freedomtoexhale.com/cw.htmJudge Alex Kozinski Opinionhttp://freedomtoexhale.com/kzop.htmFamily Drawn Into Father's Struggle Over Med Pothttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19552.shtmlMedical Pot Growers Seek Joint Resolutionhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19507.shtmlKeystone Kops Nail 'Pothead' in Great Painhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19449.shtml
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Comment #8 posted by Hope on December 03, 2004 at 16:53:54 PT
Credible, I mean.
Sorry.
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Comment #7 posted by Hope on December 03, 2004 at 16:52:29 PT
"creditable and real" 
It's always seemed horribly so, to me, Runruff. Horribly.That's why I'm making a stand with you guys. I know the difference between right and wrong.
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Comment #6 posted by runruff on December 03, 2004 at 13:18:28 PT:
Well................
Ther you have it. I guess it all seems more creditable and real to someone when you read an aticle like this in the news. But this is what happen to me. Something doesn"t always hit home untill it happens to you. When Your government can find any trumpted up reason to treat it's citizens this way believe me no one is safe. It is all a matter of if it becomes convienient or expiedient for them to treat you or anyone this way. I am under the jackbooted boot heel of the feds as I write this. I want to say don't do anything to put yourself here but then again that would mean not exersizing your God given constitutional rights. Things don't seem to be going the way they should. 
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Comment #5 posted by afterburner on December 03, 2004 at 11:57:59 PT
'sexed up' 
I guess it's harder for the PTB's, the media, the courts (?), and the general public to ignore the plight of a white - woman being denied her life-saving medicine, than men like Tom and Rollie, or Peter McWilliams, or black - quadriplegics like Jonathan Magbie, or children shot by accident in DEA raids, or missionaries shot down in error in foreign airspace in South America. The inherent racism and maybe sexism of the prohibition laws is manifest. And what about the children? Do we save them by shooting them?
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Comment #4 posted by Sam Adams on December 03, 2004 at 11:06:13 PT
Hey!
About 20 articles ago I asked "when will someone mention the irony/hypocrisy of Rehnquist having cancer? When will someone mention the reality of SWAT teams kicking people to the ground instead of the abstract details of legal issues?" Well, it's reassuring that there are still some good reporters out there! This article and the previous one made my day.
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Comment #3 posted by kaptinemo on December 03, 2004 at 10:12:37 PT:
They are FINALLY getting it
I guess the issue has become significantly 'sexed up' as our British brethren say. The media are finally paying it the attention it is due, and is dwelling upon the points it should.As we here have been saying from the beginning: Federal power needs to be reined in before it subsumes every last check-and-balance necessary to prevent all-encompassing tyranny. To fail is to invite the same horrors visited upon much of ther rest of the world into our own bedrooms. And the only other possible remedies for that...are too terrible to contemplate.
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Comment #2 posted by The GCW on December 03, 2004 at 09:32:25 PT
Here is one eye opener.
The front page of the Era-Banner http://www.yorkregion.com/yr/newscentre/erabanner/, The (CN ON)has a story titled, "CANCER CENTRE NOT PRIORITY: MPP' http://www.yorkregion.com/yr/newscentre/erabanner/story/2394649p-2772195c.html  "Despite having the highest cancer death rate in Ontario, York Region is not a high priority for a new cancer centre, Health Minister George Smitherman told the provincial legislature this week." while there is also a front page story which seems to indicate what their pritity is,That story is, CN ON: Marijuana Grow Labs Harder To Spot
  http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v04/n1724/a08.html?397This is a story that was in the day before,  CN ON: Cops' Efforts Up In Smoke?  http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v04/n1720/a05.html?397I already sent a LTE before seeing this; someone might consider writting and pointing out this backward priority...
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Comment #1 posted by afterburner on December 03, 2004 at 08:54:53 PT
Yes, Paint that Picture...
while public attention is focused on the Supreme Court's deliberation on Ashcroft v. Raich. This is almost as good as a movie about cannabis truth and freedom."Inside the home, agents find a terrified man who peacefully presents his state of Colorado-issued card and certificate, the government's permission for him to grow, possess and use medical marijuana." ["Everyone will say, `My marijuana is legal,'" said Justice Stephen Breyer, Court Hears Medical Marijuana Case http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/19/thread19919.shtml ]"Agents find what they seek: May's modest medical marijuana garden, tucked in his basement behind two locked doors." ["Who's to prevent a spouse or the children from access to the marijuana?" --Kathy Jo Lindner, Supreme Court Looks at Medical Marijuana http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/19/thread19952.shtml ]"The Founding Fathers' dream of a limited federal government of enumerated powers has become a twisted nightmare where the Constitution does not mean what it says, and where there is no limit to federal power because the Commerce Clause is meaningless. This case is larger than just medical marijuana; it concerns the creeping expansion of federal power at the expense of the voters of the state of Colorado who wish to govern themselves."Bravo!
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