Obama to ease up on marijuana prosecution

  Today President Obama announced that he would loosen the federal guidelines on pursuing federal drug laws on people who are using medical marijuana, and those that sell it, in compliance with state laws.

prosecutors will be told it is not a good use of their time to arrest people who use or provide medical marijuana in strict compliance with state law.

  This is a complete reversal of President Bush’s policy of prosecuting people on federal statutes who were in compliance with the laws of the states in which they reside. As someone who considers himself a libertarian leaning conservative Republican and state’s rights advocate I believe that I hold a position that is at odds with most conservatives– I agree with President Obama.

  I believe that the states hold the right to institute various laws that the federal government has no right interfering with; this would fall under a state’s rights issue in my book along with gay marriage and yes even abortion among many others. This does not mean that I agree with these issues only that I believe the states have the right to decide these issues, considering the fact that the people elect the state officials the people are the ones who end up deciding these issues in their states. If you live in a state that has laws that you don’t agree with you have two options– either help to elect people that will either institute or overturn the laws that you agree or disagree with or move to a state that more reflects your viewpoints. That is the reason so much emphasis was put on state’s rights at the founding of the country, it left people with options. Those options have slowly been eroding under an over-reaching federal government.

  If a state legalizes marijuana use for medical reasons than the federal government has no business prosecuting people that are participating in an activity that a state deems is legal. Currently there are fourteen states that allow marijuana use for medical reasons, people who are residents in these states and who have a doctor’s prescription should not be prosecuted, George Bush overstepped his authority on this issue.

  You can argue the legitimacy of using marijuana for medical reasons, I have my doubts about the legitimacy, and there are many people who use these laws to illegally smoke marijuana, the new federal guidelines still leave the option open to prosecute these people.

the government will still prosecute those who use medical marijuana as a cover for other illegal activity. The memo particularly warns that some suspects may hide old-fashioned drug dealing or other crimes behind a medical marijuana business

  If you live in a state that allows medical marijuana use and you are using marijuana illegally you can still be prosecuted under federal law. To me this is the proper interpretation of federal law.

  With all of the problems currently facing this country it seems to me that prosecuting people who are in compliance with state laws on marijuana use should be far down on the list.