Medical marijuana (MMJ to the trade) is legal in 20 states and Canada. Recreational marijuana is legal in Colorado, Washington and, yup, Uruguay. But marijuana in most of its incarnations, is still illegal to the U.S. federal government, and while there are various “guidelines” – like the August 29, 2013 memorandum from Deputy Attorney General James Cole to his federal prosecutors (U.S. Attorneys) – on deploying federal resources to prosecute marijuana related offenses, its use is still a federal crime. The memo simply stated that under certain circumstances, it was not an “efficient use of federal resources” to pursue marijuana crimes, iterating that Congress still held marijuana to be an illicit controlled substance.
The memo is specific on what it will not tolerate: distribution to minors (even for medical reasons), use of federal lands, use on federal property, use where it is a violation of the relevant state law, DUI, anything were a gun is used (hey Westerners who carry guns to Starbucks and schools!) and lots of ambiguous stuff about linkage to criminal enterprise. The memo explains that the feds were previously focused on any large-scale operation but that in future investigations, the size of the enterprise alone would no longer be determinative. However, the memo also says that prosecution is always discretionary, and that these guidelines create no rights, and cannot be used as a defense to any civil or criminal prosecution. Huh? Confused? So is just about everyone who has to deal with this on a daily basis.
So every once and a while, a local U.S. attorney will go out and round up a few of the state-licensed purveyors of weed, file some charges and try to shut down these local facilities. It can be very haphazard as a number of local Bakersfield, California sellers (MMJ-legal) recently discovered.
You can bet that as much as Vegas casino-owner Sheldon Adelson wants online gambling banned, the big drug cartels fear legalization more than a division of well-armed Mexican federales. Why shouldn’t they continue to ply their trade with prices through the roof, benefiting from the risk-reward inherent in well-executed criminal activity? So what if a few folks have to die to make a point, and who cares if that drive-by takes out a few innocent victims. It’s the business that matters.
Colorado is pulling in more than $3 million a month in new, marijuana-based tax revenue since the drug became legal in January. Add this to the reduction in police efforts and the cut-back in prisoners in state facilities, the ability to fund new drug-rehab programs to cover drug abuse in general, and it’s hard to see why marijuana isn’t legal everywhere. It’s certainly almost as easy to obtain where it is strictly illegal (ask your local high school or college student for directions). Or you can continue to line the pockets of the drug lords who would pay big bucks to keep weed illegal.
Canada has another approach: only allow big processors/growers to have licenses and watch them like a hawk. Thus, in Canada, it is only legal to fulfill a medical marijuana prescription from these big (and wildly profitable) big boys. Easier for the authorities to track, but in the world of free market business, who decides who gets rich… and why?
“A court ordered the [Canadian] government to make marijuana available for medicinal purposes in 2000, but the first system for doing so created havoc. The government sold directly to approved consumers, but individuals were also permitted to grow for their own purposes or to turn over their growing to small operations. The free-for-all approach prompted a flood of complaints from police and local governments.
“So the Canadian government decided to create an extensive, heavily regulated system for growing and selling marijuana. The new rules allow users with prescriptions to buy only from one of the approved, large-scale, profit-seeking producers like Tweed [occupying an old Hershey’s chocolate factory in Smith Falls, Ontario], a move intended to shut down the thousands of informal growing operations scattered across the country.
“The requirements, which went into effect in April, are giving rise to what many are betting will be a lucrative new industry of legitimate producers. The government, which will collect taxes on the sales, estimates that the business could generate more than 3.1 billion Canadian dollars a year in sales within the next decade.” New York Times, May 24th.
Bottom line: marijuana is going to be legal in the United States, everywhere, in the not-too-distant future. We need to prepare and do it right. Colorado is pioneering systems to monitor and control this activity, but there is a long way to go. The feds are struggling with what to do. Republicans, the bastions of social conservatism, are equally torn apart. The libertarian wing agrees with the legalization movement; social conservatives opposed it.
The House of Representatives is even considering a proposal (with sponsors from both sides of the aisle) to defund federal enforcement efforts against businesses and individuals who are otherwise in full compliance with state-permitted MMJ usage. The Obama administration is ambivalent, sending mixed signals every day. Democrats are split but leaning heavily in favor of legalization. When California – the largest state in the union – expands from MMJ to full recreational use, the floodgates will open.
For the little kid, experiencing 300 seizures a day that can be reduced by 99% with a mild, non-high-producing dosage of marijuana derivative, providing that benefit is a serious federal felony anywhere. So desperate parents, willing to go to prison for their “baby,” get what they can get, not knowing if their dosage is correct. Growers, aiming for the illicit and profitable marketplace, don’t care if they use banned pesticides and toxic growing methods to maximize their yields. After all, who’s going to turn them into the authorities for selling impure weed?
It’s time to kill as much cartel business as we can, move the revenues from criminals to taxing authorities, fund as many drug-rehab facilities as we need, stop wasting our criminal justice dollars on weed and open up the medical profession to do what they know they need to do to use cannabis properly and effectively. The ban on marijuana is not remotely as effective as Prohibition was… and Prohibition was one of the stupidest efforts ever mounted in the United States. Hell as no fury like a self-righteous zealot on a self-appointed (sometimes blaming God) mission.
I’m Peter Dekom, and it’s time to stop the stupid waste and get real!
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