Trump pays lip service to Federalism, saying that it is ok for States to opt out of Obamacare mandates because States rights. Then on the inverse the Trump administration is signalling that they are going to crack down on marijuana.
For the record, I don't touch the stuff, but I have no qualm or criticism for anyone who wishes to smoke some weed.
Yesterday Sean Spicer announced- "I do believe that you'll see greater enforcement of [federal law against marijuana]." He justifies this with- "There is still a federal law that we need to abide by ... when it comes to recreational marijuana and other drugs of that nature."
So that kind of throws out the rhetoric of "States Rights" doesn't it? This is a big hypocrisy from the Republicans who are always going on about States rights except when it comes to the War on Drugs. States rights be damned in that case.
Trump's nominee to the EPA, Scott Pruitt, while AG for Nebraska sued in an failed attempt to have Colorado's marijuana laws declared null and void.
Then you have the argument from Republicans about original intent understanding of the Constitution but that view is also thrown out the window in the case of the War on Drugs. The Tenth Amendment states clearly- "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
No where in the Constitution does the Federal Government have any right to regulate any plant people grow, eat or smoke.
Way back when people understood this. Anyone who argues that the Federal Government has the right or the power to regulate marijuana, I need them to answer this.
If it is so true that the Feds have such power, then why did we have to actually pass a Constitutional Amendment for the government to ban alcohol? Back then everyone knew that the Feds didn't have the power as enumerated in the Constitution to make alcohol illegal, nor does the government have the power to make weed illegal. If the federal government had such powers to tell people what they can and can't ingest then there was never any reason for the government to have a need for the 18th amendment, they could have just made a federal law prohibiting alcohol, like they have with marijuana.
Spicer then went on to say this further justifying why the Feds need to crack down on marijuana specifically- "I think that when you see something like the opioid addiction crisis blossoming in so many states around this country, the last thing that we should be doing is encouraging people."
So Spicer is attempting to connect opioid deaths to marijuana. 30,000+ people a year in the US die from opioid overdose. This includes heroin and prescription opioid (painkillers) deaths. Half of those deaths are from prescription opioids alone.
Marijuana overdoes on the other hand has killed a grand total of zero (0) people throughout all recorded American history.
Hell, the biggest dealer of opioids is the AMA! In fact, if the Trump administration truly wants to crack down on opioid addiction and overdose all they have to do is walk right over to the FDA and crack some heads there. The FDA who recently approved opioid painkillers for use in children between the ages of 11-16. Fucking morons.
Sessions also got into the mix claiming that there is violence associated with pot smoking. Har! Hell, ya'll hear about people stoned out of their minds going on rampages all the time don't ya? Wait, no, those rampages are usually the poor bastards on anti psychotic meds. My bad.
Trump is fucking up here. People like me see the Constitution as the absolute highest law of the land and are sick of the government ignoring the limitations placed on the government by it. The War on Drugs is one such abuse. I don't wanna hear some mother fucker blabbing about States rights and then saying we gotta arrest all the pot smokers because Federal law trumps state law. The Feds never had the power to enact those laws in the first place you fucking morons!
81% of marijuana arrests are simple possession charges. 81% of the arrests are on small time users so this is who the Trump administration is going to "crack down" on.*
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKPAn7uRcVY
Anyway, Trump administration, leave the potheads alone, let the States decide for themselves the issue of marijuana. Ya'll got plenty of other shit ya gotta take care of that actually matters.
