Border Wars

As you may have heard by now Nebraska and Oklahoma are challenging Colorado’s cannabis legalization law. Kevin Sabet who has been designated to hold back legalization (as far as I can tell) had this to say:

Kevin Sabet, co-founder of anti-legalization group Smart Approaches to Marijuana, backed the legal action, saying while states should be able to decide appropriate sentencing and criminal sanctions, uniform federal drug laws are vital.

“Colorado’s decisions regarding marijuana are not without consequences to neighboring states, and indeed all Americans,” Sabet said.

Well Colorado has decided that the appropriate criminal sanctions is none, Kevin.

On top of that the Alcohol Prohibition precedent is against this sort of thing. States opting out of enforcing Prohibition is one of the things that killed it. It will kill this Prohibition too.

Reason Magazine chimes in:

Prohibitionists have been pushing this argument for years, but it will not get them what they want. As Deputy Attorney General James Cole explained to the Senate Judiciary Committee last year, the Justice Department decided against trying to block marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington after concluding that there was no viable legal strategy to stuff the buds back into the jar. It is well established that Congress cannot compel states to punish activities they decide should not be treated as crimes. Although the federal government might have more success in challenging a state’s licensing, regulation, and taxation of marijuana businesses, Cole said, the upshot of such a victory would be a legal but completely unregulated market. Given the way the Supreme Court has interpreted the Commerce Clause with reference to the ban on marijuana, the feds might force Colorado and Washington to scrap their rules for growing and distributing marijuana. But they cannot constitutionally force Colorado and Washington to arrest, prosecute, and imprison marijuana growers and distributors.

Nebraska and Oklahoma must be run by Ijits.


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One response to “Border Wars”

  1. […] may recall my post Border Wars, where the Attorney Generals of Oklahoma and Nebraska are suing Colorado over pot legalization. […]