Reefer Madness

For those concerned with the larger meaning of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on medical marijuana the other day the scribe would like to recommend Daniel Weintraub’s piece “Medical marijuana case is more federal overkill” at

http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/story/13033661p-13879655c.html

It ran in the June 9 edition of the “Sacramento Bee”.

Weintraub’s point is that we are losing our freedoms in this country to an ever-growing and intrusive federal government.

And that’s with the party of “less government” lording over every branch, which only goes to show how good (r)epublicans are at marketing themselves as something as other than what they are.

One can grow weary of twenty-somethings telling you they vote (r)epublican because it’s the party of “individual freedom.”

Weintraub points out how the decision rests largely on the U.S. Constitution’s Interstate Commerce Clause even though the plaintiffs reside in California and either grew their own or got it free from a local source.

For the second time in the past few days we are forced to do what we never thought we’d do here at highwayscribery and positively quote Justice Clarence Thomas who wrote in a special and separate dissent: “[Plaintiffs] Diane Monson and Angel Raich use marijuana that has never been bought or sold, that has never crossed state lines and that has had no demonstrable effect on the national market for marijuana. If Congress can regulate this under the Commerce Clause, then it can regulate virtually anything and the federal government is no longer one of limited and enumerated powers.”

Which is Weintraub’s point. But read the piece.

In the same vein a bipartisan measure that would prohibit the U.S. Department of Justice from using public money to raid, arrest, or prosecute patients and providers in states with medical marijuana laws is floundering in Congress.

Rep. Maurice Hinchey, a Democrat from New York, and the zany Dana Rohrabaacher, a (r)epublican from California’s Orange County have introduced the amendment, although the scribe cannot discern from the report he’s using exactly what bill it would be attached to.

The proposal has failed two times before, but you can call your representative and tell them you’d like it to pass because essentially your idea of a free country is one where you can do what you want so long as you’re not crowding out someone else’s space. Call (202) 224-3121 to get the House switchboard.

Remember, what we’re talking about here are cancer patients and the like looking for a little relief from terrible pain. Our government is great at meting out pain while viewing its relief as some sort of socialist soft-soap.

Barney Frank (D-Mass) has been introducing a “States’ Rights to Medical Marijuana Act” every year since 1995. It would move marijuana to a less restricted status within the Controlled Substances Act, which Congress in its infinite stupidity passed as part of the utterly senseless war on drugs and its own people, who are pretty prone to taking them. Tell your reps that bill’s okay by you, too.

Elsewhere...

A federal court in Spain is going to request permission from the United States to interrogate three soldiers involved in the horrible killing of Spanish journalist Jose Couso (“A Dangerous Place,” March 22).

Not much chance of that happening since Spain is currently governed by (gulp!) socialists and had the temerity to pull its troops from George Bush’s “Coalition of the Willing” after Al-Qaeda mass murdered some 200 of its citizens March 11, 2004 (“Madrid My Dove,” March 11).

The story has no traction whatsoever in the national media and that’s why people don’t understand this country’s crappy relations with others worldwide. If Americans knew their tank gunners were training turrets on hotels known to be stuffed with journalists they might have a clearer vision of our role in the world. Which is why the story gets no traction.

But we are a beacon, you see, a beacon of freedom and democracy.

John Kerry is continuing his quest to get someone in America some health care. Click to see the ad he’s trying to put on the air here: http://www.keepingamericaspromise.com/video/kidsfirstad7023.html and if you’d like to help, go to www.keepingamericaspromise.com and join up or make a contribution.

And finally, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals wants you to call your representative and ask them to support the Sweeney-Spratt Amendment to the House Agricultural Appropriations Bill, which will ensure wild horses aren’t killed so their meat can be sold for human consumption overseas.

If you don’t know who your rep is, go here: http://www.aspca.org/site/PageServer?pagename=lobby_legislatorlookup&autologin=true&AddInterest=1182 and find out.