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Is there even a law specifically making marijuana not legal on federal level? As far as I know it is enforced through DEA as a Schedule I drug. All the federal government has to do is to take it off Schedule I list, without even involving Congress. This is an executive branch issue, not legislative. Congress pretty much delegated most of their legislative powers to the executive (three letter agencies like DEA, FAA, EPA, etc) and judiciary branches (through court decisions), so that way they cannot be blamed for anything and are not responsible for any fallout from any laws.
The schedule is not something the president could change alone, but the administration, through the attorney general or secretary of health and human services, can begin a review process for the current schedule...
Congress can also pass legislation to reschedule marijuana, which legalization advocates have been lobbying legislators to do for decades.
Slightly more details at the link, but I didn't want to make this too long. Bottom line, it would take action by the Congress (and then the president's signature) to change it.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Roboteer
The Fed govt made laws where marijuana was illegal, decades ago. And they are still on the books.
Now more recently some states have made state laws saying MJ is NOT illegal in their state. Massachusetts is the latest. And this while the Federal laws still say it's illegal in the entire country.
Not hard to figure out why the Fed govt isn't suing the states for going against Federal law. The Fed govt has no constitutional authority to regulate MJ, or any other such substances. So the power to regulate them, is reserved to "the states and the people", and the Fed govt is forbidden to do it.
The Fed govt lawyers know this, and so they are desperate to stay out of any court that will rule that the Fed laws against MJ are unconstitutional. Because not only are the Federal MJ laws unconstitutional, but huge numbers of other Fed laws are too. There is no constitutional authority for the Fed govt to run Social Security, Welfare, Medicare, OSHA, and half the rest of the Federal agencies now in existence.
If a Federal judge rules that the Federal govt cannot regulate MJ on grounds that the Constitution doesn't give them the authority to do so, they would need to rule that way on every other program or agency that similarly lacks constitutional authority.
Wouldn't it be ironic if a bunch of pot heads who want to get high, were the motivating force to get all of modern liberalism tossed out of the country, by making that case that since there is no constitutional authority for the Fed to regulate MJ, the Fed laws against it must be struck down?
Slightly more details at the link, but I didn't want to make this too long. Bottom line, it would take action by the Congress (and then the president's signature) to change it.
Interesting. My reading of it though is that either the AG or the sec of health can legalize any drug/substance after a clinical trial? Going through Congress is just faster.
Wait just a cotton picking minute. There's a poster on here who insists that "state's rights" is racist. I tried to argue him out of it, but no go.
For a certain subset of us, states' rights is code for "we have the right to disenfranchise black people and attack them with fire hoses and dogs if they try to vote". That's the context in which we first heard it. I've learned a lot more about the issue since then, but believe me, I still understand that gut negative reaction.
For a certain subset of us, states' rights is code for "we have the right to disenfranchise black people and attack them with fire hoses and dogs if they try to vote". That's the context in which we first heard it. I've learned a lot more about the issue since then, but believe me, I still understand that gut negative reaction.
Context is all.
Yes I know--state's rights was often cited by the Confederacy. In that case it was proxy for racism, but typically it is not. Just pointing out the hypocrisy.
For example there are many who falsely claim that Reagan's support for state's rights was racism, but it went back to his time as CA governor, when he was frequently stymied by the federal gov't. In his case, it had zero to do with race.
I may be mistaken, but I believe the DEA has reiterated a couple times that it will not change the schedule of MJ, despite all the states legalizing it.
To me, that was very strange, why would a govt agency such as the DEA be making comments like this? They are acting like THEY are the ones who ultimately decide whether its scheduled a certain way???
This was also extremely suspicious of them...what purpose would a Govt agency have to give their opinions in the first place...its not even their call to make...the fact that they even have an opinion on this is very suspicious, and points to collusion imo.
I really believe if some serious investigation was done, the DEA would be found to be in full collusion with the drug cartels, they are no better than the cartel hitmen who go out and kidnap and behead people!
Excellent question. According to this, the President would not be able to change the schedule unilaterally even if he wanted to. https://www.vox.com/identities/2018/...eduling-system
Slightly more details at the link, but I didn't want to make this too long. Bottom line, it would take action by the Congress (and then the president's signature) to change it.
If the Supreme Court found that the Feds had no authority to regulate MJ (or other such substances), would that "change the schedule"?
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