cannabisnews.com: A Ludicrous Protest





A Ludicrous Protest
Posted by FoM on June 01, 2001 at 17:56:12 PT
Editorial
Source: Denver Post
Faced with the twin problems of honoring Colorado voters and obeying the U.S. Supreme Court, Gov. Bill Owens and Attorney General Ken Salazar have opted for a delicate balancing act. They'll implement the medical-marijuana registry that was narrowly approved by voters last November, but they'll also abide by the high court's May ruling that the federal Controlled Substances Act makes it a criminal act to "manufacture, distribute or dispense" the drug. 
No exemption from prosecution will be sought for those who avail themselves of the registry. "The Supreme Court didn't say that states can't set up registries," says Owens. "If people choose to break the law, it's up to them whether to register." Like Owens and Salazar, The Post opposed the initiative creating the registry program. Although we are critics of the wasteful and destructive "war on drugs," and although we would support a properly formulated program legalizing medical uses of marijuana, we found the initiative to be a flawed, back-door solution. At the same time, however, The Post believes that the will of Colorado voters must be honored and that the state's highest officials have an obligation to defend the initiative against legal challenges. If the confusing Supreme Court opinion does leave some opening for implementation of the Colorado program, the state has a duty to explore that possibility. Yesterday's Owens-Salazar announcement sets the stage for that exploration. With the registry in place, medical-marijuana opponents will have standing to sue to enjoin the program. At that point, the state would defend the voter-created registry. Although the route would be circuitous, such a challenge ultimately might give the Supreme Court an opportunity to clarify ambiguities in its May decision, which related specifically to California's effort to legalize so-called marijuana "buyers' cooperatives." Surely the medical marijuana issue needs to be directly addressed soon, whether by the courts or Congress. At this point, as Owens and Salazar point out, Colorado taxpayers are trapped in the ludicrous posture of spending state resources on "what amounts to a state-sanctioned protest vehicle against federal drug laws."Source: Denver Post (CO)Published: Friday June 1, 2001Copyright: 2001 The Denver PostContact: letters denverpost.com Website: http://www.denverpost.com/Related Articles & Web Site:Coloradans For Medical Rights http://www.medicalmarijuana.com/Marijuana Program Begins Todayhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9928.shtmlPot Law Passes Muster, But Doctors Risk All http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9925.shtmlOwens Warns Doctors Against Pot Prescriptionshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9920.shtml
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