I don’t condone or support illegal drug use in any way. I would prefer, however, that each state had the option to change its laws so that medical use of marijuana was lawful, without federal interference.
In California, and about a dozen other states, medical marijuana is lawful.
Federal law does not recognize medical marijuana use.
(There is also a conservative, not merely libertarian, case for general reform of our drug laws: National Review‘s editors came out against the drug war years ago. At first that might seem surprising, but after reading that publication for a while, one would see that the editors at NR came to understand the futility of America’s current drug policy.)
There is much that could be said about how waging a drug war has made police departments more aggressive, heavily armed, more eager for federal and state anti-drug funding, and less restrained – more paramilitary than civilian. I’ll leave that topic for another time.
For now, it’s enough to note how aggressive federal prosecutors are in cases against medical use of marijuana as a palliative for gravely ill patients.
Charlie Lynch, recently convicted of offenses relating to dispensing medical marijuana, faces a maximum, and Draconian sentence of as much as 100 years in prison. (Sentencing is in October.) He’s not a crime lord, drug kingpin, or anything of the kind. He dispensed marijuana for medical purposes to patients.
Note the community response in support of medical marijuana use, as noted in commentary about the video I have embedded:
“California voters legalized medical marijuana and Morro Bay’s mayor and Chamber of Commerce held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the dispensary, and its owner Charlie Lynch.” (Emphasis added.)
If our laws justify a federal sentence of nearly 100 years in a medical marijuana case, then what are we to say about countless more serious, violent offenses? We would run out of possibilities before we could establish proportional punishments.
Here’s Drew Carey, a libertarian, on medical marijuana use, from Reason.tv:
Hat tip, naturally, to Reason.
Here’s another video, from Steven Colbert, in which he parodies inflated rhetoric and responses contrary to California’s law: