The DEA and the Constitution

idk... maybe the ninja turtles... its not a cartoon but the ORIGINAL power rangers...

EDIT: wrong topic... kinda stoned

 

Because the DEA doesn't want to take down cartels that are actually hurting people and many other things, because they simply don't want a news story posted that says "50 DEA Officers Killed In Firefight With Drug Cartels". So, when they take down a dispensary they feel good about themselves.

Although, dispensaries that sell illegally should be shut down.

 

If it just so happens to be that way, then when every state out there legalizes weed, the only weed free zone is going to be DC.

 

Consti..what? Youre weird man, I live in the U, S of A and I aint never heard my gov't talk about something like that.

 

While the states do have the right to govern themselves, federal law trumps state law every time; thats just how our government works. But the reason why the government goes after dispensaries and the like and not... lets say, gay married couples, is because in their eye they have some sort of moral basis to bust pot smokers on. Its a lot easier to say "we took x lbs of marijuana off the street and saved this community from moral ruin" than it is to say "dont worry guys we stopped the homos from getting married and creeping you out". It's easier to play on the fear people have of something they don't understand than it is to outright discriminate against a whole group of people.

 

No, it doesn't. At least not according to the Constitution.

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
To borrow money on the credit of the United States;
To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes;
To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States;
To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures;
To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States;
To establish post offices and post roads;
To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;
To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court;
To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations;
To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water;
To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years;
To provide and maintain a navy;
To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces;
To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions;
To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;
To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten miles (16 km) square) as may, by cession of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings.

Now the "Necessary and Proper Clause" says Congress has the implied powers, "To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof."

This means Congress is ONLY allowed to make the laws listed, and laws related to those listed. As the OP said, no mention of drugs = no Federal power to regulate them.

Over the decades, Congress has taken more and more and more power, to the point where they've pretty much been given carte blanche to legislate whatever the fuck they want.

There is the Commerce clause, which says, "[The Congress shall have power] To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes." This is one of those clauses that has been absolutely misinterpreted by power-hungry politicians, because they use lame excuses like "drug dealers use interstate highways, therefore we get to regulate drugs!"

Basically, unless enough people start to tell the two party system of bastards to fuck off, we'll be stuck in this bullshit because it really doesn't matter what fucking letter is after your name, what matters is whether or not you're going to serve THE PEOPLE instead of themselves. The majority of idiots who vote, vote only for their party, regardless of how crooked they are or how retarded their ideas are. It pisses me off to no end.

 

The power to regulate interstate commerce has basically been prized all the way open into carte blanche for drug regulation. And yes, it has been prized open by the courts. That's the scary thing about taking things to the Supreme Court: they could rule in your favor and achieve some great, awesome change, or they can rule against you and basically fuck up the law for everybody.

You see, marijuana is just matter. It's made up of molecules and atoms and quarks and all that. No law of nature prevents its transport across state lines, since state lines are imaginary things that exist only in our heads. Therefore, since any given quantity of marijuana could, theoretically, at some point, be transported across a state line somewhere, any and all marijuana is subject to arbitrary federal law, up to and including being outlawed.

Does that argument make any sense? Of course not. Nothing about marijuana prohibition makes sense.

 

touche good sir, touche. but having said that, and others have pointed out, while those things listed may be the only things that the constitution actually outlines for congress, of course many things are assumed by modern day politicians and lumped into categories where the federal government does trump the states. unfortunately, pot is one of those things