There is much that is wrong with the Obama administration.
As with presidents that have preceded him, Mr. Obama is keeping U.S. military
forces spread out all over the world, maintaining the U.S. as the 800-pound
gorilla in international affairs. (And that’s even with a Nobel Prize for
peace. Go figure that one.)
The Obama people still don’t know what a free market is.
Then again, neither have his predecessors, and government health care is a
catastrophe waiting to happen.
But the administration is doing one thing correctly and, for
that, everyone should be thankful. Attorney General Eric Holder has said the
federal government will actually honor the Constitution on one matter, though
he didn’t quite phrase it that way.
While he didn’t use the words “honor the constitution,” Mr.
Holder did announce that his office would not interfere with a patient taking
medical marijuana prescribed by a doctor in states that allow the use of
marijuana for medical reasons. This may be only one small step in the right
direction, but it’s at least that one small step.
Previous administrations, even those that called themselves
“compassionate,” were far less so on this matter. Dispensaries were raided,
patients and doctors arrested, prosecuted and jailed. Some patients died
without nature’s medicine, others fled the country.
But, now, for a time being at least, that will change and
that is a good thing.
Patients–in the 13 states that allow the use–can get the
symptom relief they want and need without the adverse side effects of
pharmaceuticals that may either not work, or be as or more harmful than the diseases
they intent to treat. Glaucoma, cancer and AIDS patients will see reduced
suffering without the added insult of prison. Imagine needing to choose between
getting well and risking jail time because you’re medicine is illegal.
Those patients can now get that relief without dealing with
the underside of society while they and their doctors can work together without
the patient feeling as if he or she needs to hide from the law. But it also
honors the Constitution.
The drug war as a whole has no constitutional basis. Nowhere
in the Constitution is the federal government given the power to prohibit the
use of drugs and nowhere is the federal government given the power to override
state laws in medical matters.
Again, this one small step is in the right direction. And perhaps,
once it becomes apparent that regulation is better than prohibition, the feds
will drop the rest of the drug war so that peace will come to the streets. That
may not earn a Nobel Prize, but it sure would deserve one.
Prohibition increases violence and danger while disregarding
constitutionally guaranteed liberties. Thank the Obama administration for it’s
acceptance of state laws, then ask it to go a step further.
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