...1) Marijuana was legalized by voters through citizen initiatives. The method of ballot initiative through special interest groups was most likely used due to little support from state legislators. Only twenty-six states, and Washington D.C. implement initiative rights to citizens. Some believe initiative rights, which reflect a direct democracy, threaten our representative system. 2) The federal government regulates the use of controlled substances through The Controlled Substances Act. In the case of Gonzales v. Raich (2005), The Supreme Court interpreted that under The Commerce Clause the federal government has authority to prohibit marijuana for all purposes. As stated in The Supremacy Clause of the constitution, the framers intended for...
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...GONZALES v. RAICH 545 U.S. 1 (2005) UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT Facts: There are nine states that have established laws allowing citizens to seek treatment using medical marijuana, the state of California is one of them. It began in 1913 when California prohibited the sale and possession of marijuana, later they passed the Compassionate Use Act of 1996 (Proposition 215). The Compassionate Use Act granted those deemed “seriously ill” could obtain marijuana for medicinal purposes legally. Monson and Raich were both protected under the Compassionate Use Act to consume marijuana for excruciating pain, Raich’s physician explained forgoing marijuana, could be fatal. The federal government enacted the Controlled Substance Act(CSA) in 1970 to set the grounds for a federally governed drug policy. This act regulates the use and manufacture of substances found to have negative impacts on the public. The CSA classifies marijuana as a schedule 1 drug, deemed to have no medical use and a high potential for abuse. Despite approval from the state of California, DEA agents seized and removed Raich’s marijuana plants....
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...divided on how to regulate these products in the market, causing much governmental controversy. There have been many groundbreaking and unprecedented court cases that have been shaping the public policy on which these substances stand on. These substances have an immediate and perilous effect on the health of all human beings. Tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, alcohol causes impaired judgment and in turn causes people to do things that affect their health physically and emotionally, and marijuana has almost the same effect as alcohol. (New England Law) Health is the ultimate concern when studying these three substances, which would lead to the Family Smoking Prevention Act to survive the Hudson Test. The Granholm case would lead one to believe that states cannot discriminate against outsiders from sales, and the medical exceptions for marijuana are valid on the fact that it has a medical advantage to some citizens. I strongly believe that the federal government has a right to regulate certain aspects of these substances based upon the danger posed to the health of citizens. This paper will discuss certain court cases that shape my opinion for every substance. Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. v. Public Service Commission of New York, 447 U.S 557 (1980) was an important case decided by the United States Supreme Court that laid out a four-part test for determining when restrictions on commercial speech violated the First Amendment...
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...an expensive and failed concept which has incorporated racism in its administration, increased crime rates, imposed harsh sentences for nonviolent offenses, facilitated police corruption and aggressively eroded civil liberties. Table of Contents INTRODUCTION Introduction to the Problem Background of the Study Statement of the Problem Purpose of the Research Research Questions Significance of the Research Assumptions and Limitations Organization of the Remainder of the Study LITERATURE REVIEW CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Marijuana Legalization: The War on Drugs and Criminal Law INTRODUCTION The United States has conducted a long experiment of drug prohibition. The prohibition of marijuana and other illicit drugs has only increased their use, abuse and availability to children. The drug war has served to increase crime rates and rampant corruption among law enforcement officials. Federal expenditures on drug prohibition enforcement are a drain on the American economy and takes money that could be allocated to other resources. Current drug prohibition laws are helping to create enormous case backlog. This has...
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...Conflicting Federal and State Medical Marijuana Policies: A Threat to Cooperative Federalism Todd Grabarsky* Abstract The legal status of medical marijuana in the United States is something of a paradox. On one hand, federal government has placed a ban on the drug with no exceptions. On the other hand, over one-third of the states have that legalizes the cultivation, distribution, and consumption of the drug for medical purposes. As such, the usage of medical marijuana is an activity that is at the same time proscribed (by the federal government) and encouraged (by state governments through their systems of regulation and taxation). This Article seeks to shed light on this unprecedented nebulous zone of legality in which an activity is both legal and illegal, an issue that one scholar on the subject has deemed “one of the most important federalism disputes in a generation.” The issue has become heightened as two states have legalized marijuana for recreational (non-medical) purposes as a result of recent 2012 Election. This Article examines the issue from a federalism perspective. It begins by arguing that unpredictable enforcement by federal authorities in states that have legalized medical marijuana not only threatens state drug policy, but also the efficacy of federal enforcement. This argument is based on the premise that the federal drug ban exists as a cooperation between the states and the federal government. That the federal government relies on the assistance...
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...Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia | [hide]This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. | This article lends undue weight to certain ideas, incidents, or controversies. (December 2013) | This article is outdated. (December 2013) | This article needs additional citations for verification. (October 2014) | | | Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs | Governments of opium-producing Parties are required to "purchase and take physical possession of such crops as soon as possible" after harvest to prevent diversion into the illicit market. | Signed | 30 March 1961 | Location | New York City | Effective | 8 August 1975 [1] | Condition | 40 ratifications | Parties | 185[1] | Depositary | Secretary-General of the United Nations | Languages | Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish | Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs at Wikisource | The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961 is an international treaty to prohibit production and supply of specific (nominally narcotic) drugs and of drugs with similar effects except under licence for specific purposes, such as medical treatment and research. As noted below, its major effects included updating the Paris Convention of 13 July 1931 to include the vast number of synthetic opioids invented in the intervening thirty years and a mechanism for more easily including new ones. From 1931 to 1961, most of the families of synthetic...
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...the constitution. Some most important delegated powers are: the authority to tax, regulated interstate commerce, authority to declare war, and grants the president role of commander and chief of the military • Implied Powers: Powers not expressed in the constitution, but that can be inferred. “Necessary and proper clause” • Concurrent powers: powers shared by both levels of government. Ex: Taxes, roads, elections, commerce, establishing courts and a judicial system • Reserved powers: powers not assigned by the constitution to the national government but left to the states or the people. Guaranteed by the 10th amendment. Include “police power”-health and public welfare, intra-state commerce. Example of police powers: Gonzales vs Raich (2005) and California Medical Marijuana. The parts and relevance of the "Triad of Powers" • Interstate commerce clause • General welfare • 10th amendment – non-delegated powers go to the states Federalism between states (i.e. full faith and credit and privileges and immunities clause, original...
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