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Rep Jared Polis (D-CO) & 16 others tell feds: don't interfere with state marijuana laws
With the marijuana legalization initiative in Washington State and Colorado set to officially go into effect in the next several weeks, several members of Congress are stepping up to ask federal agencies to respect the will of the voters. The 17 members sent a letter to the Department of Justice and Drug Enforcement Administration asking them to not interfere with the states’ marijuana laws. From the letter (via Rep. Jared Polis):
While we recognize that other states have chosen a different path, and further understand that the federal government has an important role to play in protecting against interstate shipments of marijuana leaving Colorado or Washington, we ask that your Departments take no enforcement action against anyone who acts in compliance with the laws of Colorado, Washington and any other states that choose to regulate access to marijuana for medicinal or personal use. The voters of these states chose, by a substantial margin, to forge a new and effective policy with respect to marijuana. The tide of public opinion is changing, both at the ballot box and in state legislatures across the country. We believe that the collective judgment of voters and state lawmakers must be respected. Thank you for your attention to this important matter.
The members who signed the letter are Jared Polis (D-CO), Steve Cohen (D-TN), Diana DeGette (D-CO), Ed Perlmutter (D-CO), Barney Frank (D-MA), Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Sam Farr (D-CA), Jim Moran (D-VA), Chellie Pingree (D-ME), Adam Smith (D-WA), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ), Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (D-VA) and John Conyers (D-MI).
I think it is interesting to note that three of the members who signed the letter are from Colorado, one is from Washington State, and one represents Detroit, which recently approved a local marijuana decriminalization measure. As politicians are shown that their constitutes strongly supports marijuana legalization it becomes easier for them to strongly advocate for it. Marijuana legalization is quickly transitioning from a political taboo to a winning political position in large parts of the country.
Photo by Jeffrey Beall under Creative Commons license
13 Comments
The Republicans should join in on this in true bi-partisan fashion.
It is a perfect 10th amendment, “laboratory of the states” issue that would appeal to the younger audience they are so desperate to court and is potentially a huge embarassment to Obama.
Thanks Jon.
Tweeted. Recommended.
It’s a classic “states rights” argument. Easy to pick out all the phony conservatives, who suddenly love big government.
My two cents: we would be better off, at least in terms of marijuana, under a President Schwartzennegger, who smoked a lot of weed himself and who saw to it that his last public action as governor was to de-criminalize regular old pot owned by anyone. Right before he left the governorship, he and Mark Leno (D) put together legislation making it almost impossible for police to arrest anyone holding less than 6 ounces of dope.
Obama is so fascist on this issue, I don’t hold out much hope for signing petitions. He is also a fascist on financial issues and military ones.
Suddenlike, I’m a staunch supporter of “states rights”.
Let’s keep the federal gummint out of our personal lives. :o)
John C. Calhoun would be PRRROUD of Colorado and Washington! :o)
Whose ox is being gored?
Iam so glad CO approved this, now all the mexican drug cartels can leave CA and go to CO and ruin their national parks with legal illegal grows…leagal illegal grows in foreclosed homes, ruining the homes and stealing electricity in the process.. heck we’ve even busted them growing in the middle of our corn fields. You can have them CO!! Thanks from central CA!!!
Conservatives should surely get with the program. William F. Buckley and a whole slew of other leaders of the conservatives are or were already on board. Current players who are on the fence should look up some of the writings of their leadership on the subject and quit looking at it with an eye toward giving up some control of the serfs. After all is said and done, this is a drug that no one has ever overdosed and died from, the worst you can do if you consumed way too much pot is fall asleep for a few hours, and the drug does not have any apparent bad results when mixed with any other drug known to man.
Many conservatives support the legalization of pot, chief among them was conservative icon William F. Buckley. From a pure conservative point of view it should be a slam dunk. That they oppose legalization tells me they don’t even understand their own ideological basics.
Were Republicans invited to sign on? I know that Ron Paul supports legalization.
Keep in mind Barry kept the draconian Bush hold-over Michele M. Leonhart as head of the DEA (actually promoted her). That should give some indication of the administrations view, and most likely the bulk of the Dims.
It’s almost unbelievable that it’s taken over 40 yrs. since the first petitions were put out to get pot legal in a state. Calif. back then.
Arnold was born in Austria and can never be President,but I agree that Obama should direct the Justice Dept. to respect state law on pot.
“Whose Ox is being gored?” In the larger sense, that of the drug cartels and the people who are flourishing in “the war on drugs”;
which includes various uber-law-enforcement groups, including the governments of some of the countries supplying MaryJane.
Same old story; the people most in favor of prohibition were the Baptists and the bootleggers.