Drug War would be hilarious, if lives weren't ruined
Perhaps, if we wait a little longer, the War on Drugs will grow more insane ... though it would be hard.
In 1996, California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 215, allowing medical marijuana use in that state.
What do soulless police and prosecutors always tell us? They have no choice but to enforce all the laws as written (sure -- like they're about to start raiding fellow officers for violating the cohabitation statutes.) If you don't like the law, they've always sneered, just go to the polls and change it. So, Californians did.
But California cops have continued busting sick Californians and seizing their home-grown pot -- paying particular attention to those who dared exercise their First Amendment rights to promote Prop 15, like 1996 Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Steve Kubby, an adrenal cancer survivor, and AIDS patient Peter McWilliams, author of the high-profile book "Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do" (Prelude Press.)
Now, a federal judge has ruled McWilliams and fellow defendant Todd McCormick, who has bone cancer, won't be allowed to even (start ital)mention(end ital) Prop 15 at trial.
U.S. District Judge George King ruled "They ... cannot refer to their medical conditions, the medical uses of marijuana, or California's Proposition 215," The Associated Press reports.
McWilliams says he can only keep down his AIDS medication by smoking marijuana. But Judge King's ruling "disallowed a defense based on medical necessity because it 'is not available as a matter of law,' since Congress has ruled marijuana has no medical merit," The AP explains. "Proposition 215 recognizes some medical benefits, but U.S. officials say state laws do not apply to federal offenses."
Apparently, in California one now has a right to a trial (before a jury carefully stacked to include only prohibitionists) -- but no right to mount a defense.
Meantime -- don't try too hard to make sense of this, it will make your head hurt -- the Sacramento Bee reported on Nov. 7:
"If you never thought you'd live to see the day police would have to return marijuana and guns to a person they had busted on drug charges, you should have been in Auburn on Wednesday at the Placer County Sheriff's Department.
"Chris Jay Miller, 48, of Citrus Heights, backed his pickup truck to the door of an evidence shed behind sheriff's headquarters and, with help from Sgt. Keven Besana, filled its cab and much of its bed with items that ordinarily would be considered contraband:" the Bee continues. "Bags and jars of marijuana and plant clippings, grow lights, hydroponic tubs, two revolvers, two rifles, a camouflage bulletproof vest, circulating fan and other gadgets, most of them used in the cultivation of pot."
Cops raiding Miller's house on March 18 initially rebuffed his claim to be a legitimate medical marijuana patient, brusquely informing him that if he wasn't "dying of cancer or AIDS ... then Proposition 215 doesn't apply to you."
But following an investigation (oh good, let's do the investigation (start ital)after(end ital) we send in the armed gunmen), the Sacramento paper reports: "The Placer County district attorney concluded Miller may, indeed, meet Proposition 215's guidelines," since he'd been using marijuana to fight chronic pain, muscle spasms and arthritis as an alternative to the addictive pain killers prescribed to him for more than 10 years following a series of disabling car and motorcycle accidents.
Based on the "severity of the defendant's medical condition and his possession of a written recommendation by a licensed physician," prosecutor David H. Tellman decided on July 19 to drop all charges.
Miller thereupon petitioned the court for return of his property, won, and "collected his pot, guns ... and grow gear and drove out of the sheriff's evidence enclosure to the congratulations of medical marijuana advocates and applause from neighbors who had gathered to watch the process."
Ah, the rule of law: The important thing, as we may all remember from Civics class, is that everyone be able to easily understand what's legal and what's not, and what will happen if one is "caught" and arrested.
Meantime in Washington, the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (HR3164) steamrolled through the House after only four days "debate" on Nov. 2, with anyone questioning it being labeled by the sponsor a "narco lobbyist."
This edict authorizes the federals to create a blacklist of supposed foreign drug traffickers (no due process for those "nominated," of course.) Then -- I love this part -- it imposes up to 10 years on prison, a $10 million fine, and property seizures on anyone who does business with persons on the list.
It gets better. (Who drafted this thing, the Mad Hatter?) They get to keep the list (start ital)secret(end ital)! So your mom-and-pop business could be filling an overseas order for computer software or Christmas cookies, putting yourself at risk of prison terms and the seizure of your entire business ... and you can't even call up the DEA and find out who's on this list! Because it's secret!
"If you're arrested and prosecuted for doing business with a designated drug kingpin or a subsidiary, you can't defend yourself by proving that he's not a kingpin," explains Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., who unsuccessfully opposed the bill. Why? Because "the designation is not reviewable by the courts."
Isn't this a hoot? We haven't seen standards of jurisprudence like this since the Dominican Order shifted the witch-burnings into high gear in the 1490s.
To read the full text of Florida Congresscritter Bill McCollum's HR3164, or the Senate companion bill, S1009, check out the web site of Forfeiture Endangers American Rights, at http://www.fear.org.
Vin Suprynowicz is assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. His book, "Send in the Waco Killers," is available at $24.95 postpaid through Mountain Media, P.O. Box 271122, Las Vegas, NV 89127, or by dialing 1-800-244-2224.
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Vin Suprynowicz, vin@lvrj.com
"The evils of tyranny are rarely seen but by him who resists it." -- John Hay, 1872
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- and thus clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." -- H.L. Mencken
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