Medical Marijuana & Commerce

   It has been said that if every person in China formed a single line, due to the population rate, it would be never ending; the line would continue forever. The same could be argued regarding our country’s debates over marijuana. Now, with the Obama Administration taking the laissez faire approach and leaving it for the states to decide, the California Compassionate Use Act (passed in 1996) is back in effect. A recent debacle regarding marijuana in the US presents the questions of medical purpose and interstate commerce. In 2005, California citizen Angel Raich was prosecuted for the possession of an illegal substance. Raich suffers from an inoperable brain tumor, scoliosis and endometriosis, among her other illnesses. This type of “medical relief” is legal under the state law. The case made it all the way to the Supreme Court who declared Raich guilty of the charges based on a handful of unrelated and truly bizarre reasons. They failed to even address the medical matter of medical marijuana. Instead, they drew questionable parallels from a previous case involving the regulation of a wheat crop during the Great Depression to regulating locally cultivated marijuana. The court stated the production of this drug directly effects interstate commerce. This attempted parallel is only further demonstrates the tragic reality that those appointed to analyze nationally controversial issues, and in this case involving an illegal substance, are more concerned with money rather than how or why it is being used.
   There is no question that marijuana is widely abused. Yet, the court isn’t worrying about the corrupt doctors looking to make easy money by handing out prescriptions for marijuana like raffle tickets. They aren’t worried about scheming “pot-shop” owners making thousands weekly. The priority concern is that the American people are growing a product from home that could turn a pretty profit.
   The court believes that medical marijuana would have a severe effect on the economy. I am confused then, how there could possibly be a “rising market price” on an item that is illegal to begin with. If the state and federal authorities were properly regulating and distributing the substance, only the severely ill would be using it. That should be a manageable population to oversee.
   The feds believe that there is somehow a relation between medical marijuana and the sustaining of interstate economy. Those who disagree feel that what is locally produced and used personally has nothing to do with an open market and is not subject to federal regulation. To that I say, if the government is not willing to step in and make final, national decisions about the legality of marijuana, the description of the drug or the way it should be regulated, they certainly are wrong by abusing their power to regulate a state approved law that has little or nothing to do with interstate commerce.

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