Making the Case for Medical Marijuana

[patric]

[heironymouspasparagus]

i eat cheese, too!!  'Cause I'm an American...!!




These are the droids you're looking for!


The pot pie looked pretty good....now, I gotta warm up some turkey and dressing - leftovers from Apple Barrel Cafe lunch yesterday!  Yum!!

[patric]

Feds: Native American Tribes Can Make Their Own Marijuana Laws

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department said Thursday Indian tribes can grow and sell marijuana on their lands as long as they follow the same federal conditions laid out for states that have legalized the drug.

[heironymouspasparagus]

Feds: Native American Tribes Can Make Their Own Marijuana Laws

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department said Thursday Indian tribes can grow and sell marijuana on their lands as long as they follow the same federal conditions laid out for states that have legalized the drug.

Kinda ironic... looks like Congress is going to put that into law, but prevent DC from implementing their duly elected law.

If I didn't know better I might think they are finally backing off the oppression of the tribes by the full force and weight of the US, while keeping their thumb on black people in DC by the full force and weight of the US.

Or would that be too indelicate to state outright....?

[patric]

Kinda ironic... looks like Congress is going to put that into law, but prevent DC from implementing their duly elected law.

People and businesses we are trying to attract might look at Tulsa a bit differently if they knew you could legally have a joint at The Joint.

What is ironic is that we could have recreational use before we even gave an honest look at medicinal use.  There are patients who could this minute benefit from the non-intoxicating components like CBD.   But... elected and non-elected officials can turn their back on children with uncontrollable seizures under the false cover of "preserving family values" by enforcing laws that were created for all the wrong reasons.

Oh, well, just bring the kids to the casino...

[Townsend]

Feds: Native American Tribes Can Make Their Own Marijuana Laws

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department said Thursday Indian tribes can grow and sell marijuana on their lands as long as they follow the same federal conditions laid out for states that have legalized the drug.

So while I'm eye-balling Osage county, what does this mean to the Tulsa Irish?

[LeGenDz]

http://m.tulsaworld.com/dailybreak/no-pot-sales-for-oklahoma-tribes-official-says/article_dea1c5e0-bf2c-524c-adaa-36638d35a1db.html?mode=jqm

[patric]

So while I'm eye-balling Osage county, what does this mean to the Tulsa Irish?

That it's a good thing the Hard Rock Cafe has a nearby hotel?   




One U.S. Attorney, Sanford Coats, said he "doesnt believe the door is wide open for tribal marijuana sales."

"Coats said he believes any decision not to enforce federal marijuana laws on Indian lands would be limited to states that have voted to liberalize marijuana laws."  even though the DOJ memo didnt make that distinction.

But the Chairman of the committee Coats is speaking for has another view:

Timothy Purdom, the U.S. attorney for North Dakota and the chairman of the attorney general's subcommittee on Native American issues, explained to the Los Angeles Times that federal prosecutors will not enforce federal pot laws as long as reservations meet the same guidelines as states that have opted for legalization. He also said the federal government will continue to support any marijuana bans passed by tribal councils, even when the state allows recreational use.  In other words: The government will let tribal governments decide what to do about pot.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/12/12/native-american-reservations-now-free-to-legalize-marijuana/



"I can't see how that would even be possible in Oklahoma because we don't have any legalized sale of marijuana here," Coats said.

We dont have legalized gambling in Oklahoma, either, yet you can go to a tribal Casino and gamble away the day.




And then there's this:

In a landmark moment for cannabis law reform, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a measure late Thursday night to de-fund the federal war on medical marijuana.
http://blog.sfgate.com/smellthetruth/2014/12/12/congress-ends-war-on-medical-marijuana/

[heironymouspasparagus]

So while I'm eye-balling Osage county, what does this mean to the Tulsa Irish?

It means we are still as screwed as ever.

[patric]

It means we are still as screwed as ever.

The casino operators would not overlook an opportunity to pull in new cash hand-over-fist here, and thats exactly what they would be doing by being the first to offer legal cannabis as part of their tourism package.

If the tribes were truly caught off guard by the DOJ announcement, we would be naive to think that they arent at this very moment scrambling to put together a business model that will hit the ground running.  I would not be surprised if they didnt already have people in Colorado and Washington researching their butts off.   Fallin and the for-profit prison lobbyists must be worried, as well. 

[heironymouspasparagus]

Fallin and the for-profit prison lobbyists must be worried, as well. 

Naw...she has the Oklahoma electorate firmly in hand so she don't care.

[patric]

Oklahoma sues Colorado over legal Cannabis.


Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt argued that under the U.S. Constitution's Supremacy Clause, Colorado's legalization of recreational marijuana is unconstitutional because marijuana remains illegal under federal law.
The clause states that in general, federal law takes precedence over state law.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/18/lawsuit-colorado-marijuana_n_6350162.html


I wonder how Pruitt views states rights on other issues?  Hmmm.

[Conan71]

Oklahoma sues Colorado over legal Cannabis.


Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt argued that under the U.S. Constitution's Supremacy Clause, Colorado's legalization of recreational marijuana is unconstitutional because marijuana remains illegal under federal law.
The clause states that in general, federal law takes precedence over state law.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/18/lawsuit-colorado-marijuana_n_6350162.html


I wonder how Pruitt views states rights on other issues?  Hmmm.

Pruitt is an idiot.

[patric]

Pruitt is an idiot.

...and he got us spanked by the national media:



Conservative Republican attorneys general in Oklahoma and Nebraska waited until December to claim title to the "Nuisance Lawsuit of 2014."  They are suing neighboring Colorado over its legalization of marijuana.

If they can't keep same-sex couples from getting married, one supposes, these backward states want to go on busting young people for marijuana possession, permanently damaging lives and discrediting the criminal justice system it is the AGs' job to uphold.

Washington and Colorado voted, in 2012, to legalize, regulate and tax a substance that has been smoked or eaten by an estimated 100 million Americans.  Our future 44th president made reference to it in his Honolulu high school yearbook.  Our 42nd president claimed that he puffed but didn't inhale.

The U.S. Constitution's 18th Amendment, instituting Prohibition, set off a march of folly.  President Warren G. Harding quaffed highballs at his poker games. Urban gangsters went on murder sprees to control the business.  A 250-gallon still blew up in the mining town of Ronald, Washington, taking 28 homes with it.

America quickly saw that Prohibition was counterproductive and a mockery. It was enforced for just 13 years, from 1920 to 1933.

By contrast, the 1970 Controlled Substances Act has undermined the credibility of America's criminal justice system for 45 years.

Between 2001 and 2010, more than 8.1 million marijuana arrests were made in America.  Nine out of 10 were for simple possession.

In 2012, for instance, 658,000 Americans were arrested for simply possessing pot (down from 754,000 in 2008), compared to 521,000 for violent crimes and 256,000 for possession and/or distribution of cocaine, heroin and genuinely addictive substances.

The march to folly grew more rapidly in some places, with such practices as New York's "broken window" policy of concentrating enforcement on petty crime. Marijuana possession arrests went from 800 in 1991 to 59,000 in 2010, the vast majority being Black and Hispanic young men.

Who gets busted?  Well, let's look at plaintiff states in the suit filed on Thursday.  In Nebraska, an African-American is 4.5 times more likely to be arrested than a white, according to statistics compiled by the American Civil Liberties Union.  It's 2.8 times in Oklahoma, relatively benign compared to other states.

Yet, yet, Oklahoma and Nebraska charge that Colorado's legal pot policies have created "a dangerous gap in the federal drug control system."

How so?  At an annual cost to taxpayers of $3.6 billion, that control system has controlled nothing.  Thirty-five states and the District of Columbia have legalized medical marijuana.  On April 20 (and at Seattle's summer Hempfest) thousands of people openly defy the law.

Oklahoma and Nebraska are reminiscent of the last European country (Portugal) that tried to hold onto its colonies, or the 17 states that still had laws against interracial marriage when the U.S. Supreme Court issued its Loving v. Virginia ruling.

"Marijuana flows from this gap into neighboring states, undermining Plaintiffs states' own marijuana bans, draining their treasuries and placing stress on their criminal justice systems," Oklahoma and Nebraska argue in their brief to the U.S. Supreme Court.

But it is the futile, long-ago-lost "War on Drugs" that is draining their treasuries, and marijuana possession cases and incarcerations that are stressing out their criminal justices systems ... and has been so doing long before the "Rocky Mountain high" vote of 2012.

The Controlled Substances Act is still on the books — don't expect Camel-puffing House Speaker John Boehner to support its repeal — but is the most-ignored federal prohibition since, well, Prohibition.
(Ed: Congress pulled the plug on funding the federal war on medical marijuana just last week)

Fortunately, Washington has more enlightened neighbors south of the Columbia River and north of the 49th parallel.  Indeed, while illegal, marijuana is by far British Columbia's most valuable agricultural crop.

The Supreme Court has jurisdiction in controversies between two or more states. The Supremes will decide whether to hear the Oklahoma-Nebraska lawsuit.

Here's hoping Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson files a strong brief supporting Colorado, arguing that the Nebraska-Oklahoma lawsuit is not only without merit but lacks even a modest use of intelligence.

http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/2014/12/18/oklahoma-nebraska-a-nuisance-lawsuit-against-colorado-marijuana/

[CoffeeBean]

Regardless of whether you disagree with Colorado, Oklahoma can't force it to pass a law.

Does Oklahoma get to determine the sanction too? 

This toes the line of frivolity.

It won't happen, but I'd love to see SCOTUS issue a show cause order for Oklahoma to explain why sanctions should not issue for wasting the Court's time.