DEA Raids Marijuana Dispensaries in Washington

Never mind recreation pot is legal there

Medical marijuana dispensaries in Washington state have been raided by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the agency confirmed today.

Washington law allows possession of up to 24 ounces of marijuana, or 15 plants, and provides for licensed dispensaries to sell the drug to people with medical marijuana prescriptions. Possession of up to one ounce of recreational marijuana is also legal in Washington (and in Colorado). But the drug is still illegal for medical use under federal law, hence the DEA raids.

Comments

[Gindjurra]

Actually it's not illegal under federal law. Federal laws are limited to the areas of authority granted to it by the US constitution.

But the US constitution, in the form of both the 10th and 21st amendments, reserves the decision on whether to legalize or prohibit intoxicating substances to the states.

The feds do have the authority under the 21st amendment to interdict shipments of intoxicants across national borders or into states where those intoxicants are prohibited. The feds also have the authority to prosecute smugglers.

So long as all 50 states prohibit a substance such as marijuana, the Controlled Substances Act remains just-barely constitutional. But several states have medical marijuana laws now and two allow recreational use on the same level as alcohol. This presents a fatal problem for enforcement of the Controlled Substances Act.

In 1917, federal laws had EXACTLY the same amount of supremacy over state laws that they do now in 2013. And in 1917 Congress had to amend the constitution in order to prohibit alcohol -- if they had not, prohibition of alcohol on a national level would have been struck down by the courts as unconstitutional.

When was the amendment allowing national prohibition of marijuana ratified? I can't find it anywhere in any copy of the constitution...

[Render Unto Caesar]

Nice...