The federal government has shut down at least 500 medical marijuana dispensaries in California in the past eight months, claiming they were violating state as well as federal law. But states’ right advocates would say the federal government has no right to interfere in California and that law enforcement should be done by the state and local law enforcement not by the feds.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi agrees with the states’ rights position, saying “I have strong concerns about the recent actions by the federal government that threaten the safe access of medicinal marijuana to alleviate the suffering of patients in California” adding that medical marijuana is “both a medical and a states’ rights issue.” Her statement, I think, represents a real sea change in attitude by liberals about states’ rights, considering they generally used to oppose it without question. The more our politicians can break out of lock-step partisan positions, the better.
I basically agree that if we’re talking state to state sales and transportation, then it’s a federal matter, but when the stuff is grown in the state it’s sold in and there are laws allowing such to happen in that state, then the federal government should stay away. If you applied the same logic that the Federal Government applies to gun laws then I don’t see how marijuana should be any different when it comes to states that have laws allowing marijuana or prohibiting it, including where it can be grown and how it can be used.