President Obama swore an oath to “faithfully execute the office of President of the United States.” The POTUS is also known as the chief magistrate, whose job it is to enforce federal law. But now, Obama’s Justice Department has told federal prosecutors that they should not enforce federal marijuana law involving MJs medicinal use against people following state law, even though the Supreme Court has ruled that states can’t overturn federal policy.
This is profoundly subversive to the rule of law. The correct answer to the current bad law prohibiting marijuana from being used medicinally, and allow it to be prescribed in appropriate cases like morphine and cocaine. Indeed, I urged this course in the San Francisco Chronicle. From my column, “The Argument to Reassign or Pot’s Drug Classification, December 2, 2007:
According to Granite Staters for Medical Marijuana ( www.granitestaters.com), most of the Democrats, including Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards, have promised to call off the dogs. The leading Republican candidates, including Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney, have refused to so pledge, worrying, as John McCain put it in also rejecting the request, that marijuana is a “gateway drug.” (Fred Thompson did not answer the question.)
But this is both the wrong question and the wrong solution to the controversy. The problem isn’t the DEA raids. They are a symptom. The real illness, if you will, is the Federal Controlled Substances Act, passed in 1970, which explicitly lists marijuana as a “Schedule I” drug. This means that under federal law, marijuana has a “high potential for abuse” and “no accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.” Because marijuana is listed under Schedule I, doctors may not legally prescribe it, and the federal government can ignore state medical marijuana laws.
People can debate marijuana’s potential for abuse, but it is increasingly clear that cannabis has definite medicinal benefits. Studies and abundant anecdotal evidence demonstrate that marijuana can stimulate the appetites of people with AIDS and cancer, reduce nausea in chemotherapy patients, and help people with such debilitating conditions as multiple sclerosis, diabetes and glaucoma. And the American people know it: Polls show support in the 70 percent range for medical marijuana.
But isn’t medical marijuana a stalking horse for full tilt legalization? Unquestionably–and those folk do suffering people who could benefit from properly prescribed cannabis a great disservice. Indeed, in my view, the legalizers-to-get-high crowd are using suffering patients in a very cynical way. But that should not stop us from doing the right thing in the right manner. That is what ordered liberty is all about.
Alas, in our corrupt contemporary politics, we don’t do things right. We do things wrong. I hoped for better as the 2008 campaign got underway in earnest:
So the time has come to put the presidential candidates on the hot seat. Merely asking whether they will halt the DEA raids allows them to expediently wiggle past the real issue, and indeed, seeks a promise from a future president to violate his or her oath of office by pledging not to enforce valid federal law.
What we really need to know is whether the next president will remove marijuana from Schedule I classification. That would help sick people, remove the issue of medicinal use from the broader debate over legalization, and bring the federal law in alignment with empirical realities.
October 20th, 2009 | 12:08 am
[...] the original post here: Medical Marijuana: Obama Undermines Rule of Law » Secondhand Smoke … This entry is filed under Art, Job, LAW. You can follow any responses to this entry through the [...]
October 20th, 2009 | 12:53 am
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Amber Lovechild, Fuma Cigar. Fuma Cigar said: Medical Marijuana: Obama Undermines Rule of Law » Secondhand Smoke …: But now, Obama's Justice Department.. http://bit.ly/4cCwpi [...]
October 20th, 2009 | 7:12 am
[...] call soured the dogs. The directive politico candidates, … Go here to wager the original: Medical Marijuana: Obama Undermines Rule of Law » Secondhand Smoke … Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: barack, barack-obama, call-off, democrats, edwards, [...]
October 20th, 2009 | 8:25 am
What, exactly, does this have to do with bioethics? It sounds like just another right-wing anti-Obama hit piece.
October 20th, 2009 | 8:53 am
[...] to call off the dogs. The leading Republican candidates, … Originally posted here: Medical Marijuana: Obama Undermines Rule of Law » Secondhand Smoke … Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: barack, barack-obama, call-off, call-off-the, democrats, dogs, [...]
October 20th, 2009 | 12:27 pm
Valid medicinal value, it’s a victimless crime, the War on Drugs WAY too costly, too many arrests for simple possession, tax it and use the money to pay for health insurance and to reduce the deficit. Need I say more?
Woodstock Universe supports legalization of Marijuana for a number of reasons. Check them out and vote in our poll “Should marijuana be legalized?” at http://woodstockuniverse.com
Current poll results: 96% for legalization and 4% opposed. Add your vote. Poll runs through October.
Peace, love, music, one world,
RFWoodstock
October 20th, 2009 | 3:12 pm
I ask, in all seriousness, what the point of the FDA is if states get to on their own legalize marijuana for “medical use” (let’s be honest, it’s really basically legal in CA for anyone who wants it)? So why can’t CA and other blue states just legalize the morning-after pill, or anything else?
October 20th, 2009 | 6:21 pm
what the hell???……u people have no NOOOO idea what pain Multiple Sclerosis patents go thru!!!
its like saying ‘don’t buy a dog…they bite!!!’….but dogs bite only when they are they are provoked and they sense danger!!!U guys don’t even know how much MS people don’t wanna even live coz of the pain.
every thing has risks…people who want marijuana WILL get it no matter what…to abuse that is!
October 20th, 2009 | 9:38 pm
I just think it would be nice to have a President who didn’t have an illegal drug history of his or her own. You know, like prospective FBI agents are supposed never to have even tried the stuff — at least that’s the way it’s supposed to be. Clinton, Bush, Obama — what IS this, and how can we be surprised that the country is going to hell in a handbasket and we’ve got the culture of death when we ELECT potheads and cokeheads, even KNOWING that’s what they are — because the electorate itself is a bunch of druggies and tolerators. I have nothing against medical marijuana or its being legal; what concerns me is this administration being the one to legalize it. It would mean something different if Reagan or Bush 41 or Ike had done it — it would just be about medical treatment then. With this guy, and this crew, it’s part of a different scenario.
October 20th, 2009 | 9:43 pm
Sorry, that should have been “never even to have tried the stuff.” Split infinitives and their relatives are yet another symptom of what’s going wrong in the world. Was there a culture of death before split infinitives were “acceptable.” See what I mean? It’s work, and conscientiousness, not to split an infinitive — just as it is to treat a patient as an individual and to value life
October 20th, 2009 | 9:44 pm
Tolerate split infinitives, and you get what masquerade as doctors and medicine today.
October 20th, 2009 | 10:28 pm
The Medical Marijuana situation in California is just a big non-secret joke! Potheads from neighboring states are moving to California just to buy pot legally, and cheaply. This is the most irresponsible thing I ever heard of.
John DeFlumeri Jr.
October 20th, 2009 | 11:49 pm
Anyone that wants marijuana already gets it legal or not. Prohibition is a complete failure. It failed with alcohol and every other prohibited drug. The web site below has a lot of facts you won’t see often. You really should look it over, watch the videos and read the articles. Now I know why marijuana was made illegal and why it stays illegal. I’m in favor of making it legal and regulating it like alcohol!
More information about drug laws:
Using Internet Explorer web browser: http://jsknow.angelfire.com/home
With All Other Browsers: http://jsknow.angelfire.com/index.html
October 21st, 2009 | 9:10 am
What are you talking about? Do you mean to tell me that people have been using marijuana for medicinal use longer then they’ve been using it to just feel good? “…the legalizers-to-get-high crowd are using suffering patients in a very cynical way…” are you kidding me?
first off, Did you not know that the Constitution of the United States of America was written on HEMP paper? that’s right a marijuana darivitive! and also, in that exact same constitution it declares that things like drug laws and things of personal issue are to be “…left to the consideration of the states…” that means that that so called drug act in the 1970′s was nothing more than unconstitutional! and has been for the past 39 years! now back to your “cynical” comment – im all for people to get medical treatment and if that treatment means marijuana, then that’s just fine; but there are more uses for pot then just cancer and AIDS; what about moods swings? depression? anxiety? all the things that us common folk can use marijuana for, and very usefully as a matter of fact…
all people have a past. all people where kids at one point, but trust me, i would much rather have a stoner in office then a drunk crack-head (thank you mr. Bush, not president, mr.)
marijuana makes everything better; it makes food taste better, it makes music sound better, it makes sex better, for god’s sake!! if marijuana is not completely legal within the next 4 years, i have no hope for America…
October 21st, 2009 | 4:40 pm
My question, as it has been every time I’ve entered a discussion on marijuana legalization, is why must it be delivered as a smoked product?
This is not the middle ages. Our scientists can analyze the stuff, and have done so. And they came up with a THC pill, if I remember correctly.
Of course, there’s a problem with a pill…it’s a fixed dosage, and delivery into the person’s system is slow. At least, so it was explained to me. The fixed dose means that it could be too much or not enough to quell the pain, and too much has its own side effects.
But why a pill? Why not a nebulizer or an inhaler where the active ingredients that ease pain and reduce nausea are delivered in a mechanism similar to smoking?
It seems to me that, if a drug is to be used for medicinal purposes, it should be delivered in a valid medicinal manner.
Create a non-smoking manner of delivering the medicinal drug, such that the patient can decide when he has had enough. We don’t have to legalize smoking pot to take advantage of the medicinal properties.
October 21st, 2009 | 11:33 pm
Paula: “all people have a past. all people where kids at one point, but trust me, i would much rather have a stoner in office then a drunk crack-head (thank you mr. Bush, not president, mr.)
marijuana makes everything better; it makes food taste better, it makes music sound better, it makes sex better, for god’s sake!! if marijuana is not completely legal within the next 4 years, i have no hope for America…”
Are you toking right now? I have to say: it does appear that way.
October 26th, 2009 | 12:02 pm
[...] with President Obama violating his oath of office by announcing that he will not enforce federal law against medical marijuana use in states where it [...]
October 30th, 2009 | 4:42 pm
Medical marijuana may be a ruse for fill tilt legalization to some, but that is irrelevant. What matters is that over 35 major medical organizations support rescheduling marijuana (including American College of Physicians, American Nurses Assoc., and the Institute of Medicine) and about 10 oppose it (incl. American Medical Assoc. and Glaucoma Research Foundation). [See page 5 of this link for a list of all the orgs: http://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/sourcefiles/marijuanareschedulingrevisedoct292009.pdf The fact that so many medical orgs support marijuana as a medicine tells me that people who know medicine think this stuff has medical value. That’s all anyone needs to know. The rest is noise and BS.
Links
Blogs
Find Us
Contact