The Real Costs Of Medical Marijuana
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Drugs, Foreign Policy, Law
Some in our government would like to know.
Eleven states have passed laws making it legal for patients to use marijuana for medical purposes. The Supreme Court in Gonzalez v. Raich (2005) held that states could still pass and continue to maintain their own medical marijuana laws. However, the same decision also held that the DEA under the DOJ could still enforce the Controlled Substance Act and arrest marijuana patients and caregivers in the 11 states that have passed laws making medical marijuana legal. Since the Raich decision, the DEA has continued to arrest, investigate, and prosecute medical marijuana growers and distributors in those states and elsewhere under federal law. According to the Congressional Research Service, in recent years more than 20 large-scale raids of cannabis buyers’ clubs have occurred in California, and a handful of raids have taken place in other states.We believe that DOJ resources would be better spent enforcing other laws and we request that you determine the amount of funds spent for any DEA activity relating to medical marijuana including money spent on investigations, arrests, prosecutions, and advocacy.
Yeah…I’d like to know how much we’re spending too, not only on the aforementioned medical marijuana cases, but also on cases where we’re trying to nab somebody for selling seeds.
This entry was posted on Sunday, March 5th, 2006 and is filed under Drugs, Foreign Policy, Law. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
March 6th, 2006 at 11:59 am
Here’s another couple of ideas: Let’s stop wasting money fighting the war on drugs; let’s stop incarcerating people for non-violent drug offenses. And for God’s sake, YES, let’s stop worrying about medical marijuana. It’s a total waste of time, money and resources.
By the way - let’s also stop going after the sale of drug paraphernalia. This is a big thing now for the Feds. It actually started a few years back with our friend, John Ashcroft. He initially wanted to go after the online sale of drug paraphernalia, and that’s when Cheech or Chong - I can’t remember which - was convicted for having a website that offered pipes and stuff. Now, there is a policy - which comes from the AG - to prosecute the sale of drug paraphernalia. If state officials won’t go after it - which many won’t because the case is hard to prove in court (because of complicated issues of transferred intent) - the Feds will.
Yet another burning issue that is tearing the moral fabric of our country. Mostly college kids buying bongs and pipes - disgraceful!!!
March 10th, 2006 at 5:00 pm
Just think of how much money the government could save, or even earn, if they were to stop this over policing of trivial things like medicinal marijuana, and possibly selling it to those who need it.
March 11th, 2006 at 1:33 am
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April 9th, 2006 at 1:04 pm
Finally. the right questions are being asked about prohibition.
Why is government spending billions arresting no-violent drug offenders?
Rapist and murders walk but God forbid if a non-violent drug offender is on the street.
Government has shown it’s incompetence over and over, however the Ameican people have shown their insanity by electing the same visionless parties again and again.
Wake up America, Demopubs will not give you the America you want.
April 10th, 2006 at 4:14 am
Just another way our goverment robs us blind and then screws us afterwards. I feel like a robbery-rape victim after ever police encounter, becuase I’m a legal medical marijuana user in my state.
The feds should be spending more time keeping terrorists out of our country, and hard drugs like Meth and Heroin, I have lost friends to both and can’t see why they continue to bust clubs, glass shops, magazines, and of course, us tax paying, law abiding (the ones that aren’t bought and sold by the pharm companies) citizens.
August 13th, 2006 at 5:23 am
Yeah I absolutely agree. The combination of the judicial system being so congested and the mass amount of tax money being spent to house prisoners suggests we need an overhaul in our system. One of the problems is with prisons being commercialized they have become a big money industry. Investors have far more incentive to build a prison than a school, hence we have more of our population imprisoned than any other country!
April 18th, 2007 at 3:02 am
the best solution is allways liberalization. like in holland.
May 31st, 2007 at 1:12 am
The DEA is wasting time and money because the can. Our government is money hungry and all they wants is money the don’t care about us. this is America…everyone wonders why people from other countries call us dumb Americans……well we give our government the right to treat us like dogs… this is our country lets take it back please…..