Cogito Ergo Non Serviam

DC's Legalization of Pot Creates Federal Problems

As of 12:01 am this morning, possession of up to 2 ounces of marijuana by persons 21 years of age or older does not result in being arrested in Washington, DC. This clashes with the federal laws that maintain marijuana is as dangerous as heroin and with federal employment practices which test federal employees for drug use. This is a tension that cannot endure, and eventually, the feds will have to legalize marijuana or overturn the democratic result of a referendum held in the capital last November. One expects pot to be moved from Schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act soon.

Gina Tron, writing in the Washington Post observed, "Legal barriers to marijuana are falling all over the United States. Pot, tried by nearly half of all Americans at some point in their lives, is already legal in some form in 23 states, and four states allow recreational use. Last Friday, two House bills were filed that could end the federal prohibition of marijuana, including one which would remove marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act's schedules and regulate it similarly to alcohol. And as of the early minutes of this morning, pot is legal in the District of Columbia."

In the very same paper, Josh Hicks wrote, "Despite the new policy, which came from a voter-approved initiative in November, the U.S. government still considers marijuana to be an illegal drug and expects its civilian and military personnel to abide by federal guidelines." He added this quotation, "You can't commit federal crimes and work for the federal government, and having pot is a federal crime,: said Cheri Cannon, a former ethics attorney for the Air Force and Small Business Administration who now practices at a private D.C. firm. "As an employee of the federal government, you have to be beyond reproach." Nice theory, anyway.

Therein lies a huge dilemma. The federal government's stand on marijuana use is, to put it mildly, muddled. In those jurisdictions where it is legal for medical or recreational purposes, the federal authorities are not enforcing the laws on possession. They are accommodating banks and other businesses who provide services for "legal" growers and distributors despite laws and regulations to the contrary. At the same time, a pot smoking GS-14 employee in a jurisdiction where it is locally legal still faces federal disciplinary action.

This is a Fourteenth Amendment issue. American citizens are supposed to be equal under the law. However, a drug dispensary in Colorado, where recreational use was first legalized, has little to fear from the DEA, but a similar operation in neighboring Kansas may well be raided.

The feds have made the matter even trickier by instructing US Attorneys not to take up cases against those growing or selling marijuana on Indian lands. As with casinos, it seems, so with pot, the feds aren't going to bother the First Americans any more.

At some point, there will be a case that pushes the logic of this inconsistency to the breaking point. While this journal does not expect marijuana to be treated the same way alcohol is, one can expect marijuana to be removed from Schedule 1 and placed on a list that is much more accommodating for users and growers. The war on drugs is ending; drugs won.

© Copyright 2015 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.



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