By DR. LARRY MOSES
No one asked me but… The State of Colorado has legalized the selling, possession and use of marijuana for recreation. Some states have legalized the sale of marijuana for medical purposes, but Colorado went the distance and legalized it for everyday use for anybody.
Let me state clearly that I am more in line with the Libertarians as far as drug laws are concerned. If a person is dumb enough to use these drugs, that should be their problem. I find a country that allows the sale and use of alcoholic beverages, but finds some mystical evil in other mind-altering drugs, hypocritical at best; and schizophrenic at worst.
What I find interesting is that while it is legal to purchase, use, and possess marijuana for recreational use in Colorado, it is illegal to do so in the United States. The Colorado law is in opposition to the drug laws of the federal government.
The Attorney General of the United States, Eric Holder, has stated he will not enforce federal drug laws within the borders of Colorado unless there appears to be an increase in the use of marijuana in the state. Of course there will be an increase in the use of the drug since it is now legal to use it.
The real danger, no matter where you stand on the use of marijuana, is that once again the Obama administration is picking and choosing which federal laws to enforce and which it will ignore. The present administration arbitrarily refuses to enforce federal immigration laws, going so far as to take states that enforce the federal law into court for a cease and desist order. The President, when it has suited his purpose, has, by presidential decree, changed portions of the Affordable Care Act. When the President fails to convince Congress to pass laws he favors, he merely declares that what he wishes is the law of the land. If he finds a law he disagrees with that was passed before he was elected, he merely tells his Attorney General not to enforce it.
Is he the first President to do this? No! In the Supreme Court case, Cherokee Nation v. the State of Georgia, 1831, when the State of Georgia passed a state law confiscating Cherokee land and demanding they leave the state, the Cherokee leaders filed a lawsuit that ended up in the Supreme Court. Chief Justice John Marshall delivered the opinion of the court that the nation and the state were bound by the treaties in force that guaranteed the land to the Cherokee people. Rather than abide by the law of the land, President Andrew Jackson refused to enforce the ruling of the Supreme Court. This refusal to enforce the law of the land resulted in the “Trail of Tears.”
During the Civil War, WWI, and WWII, the President was given war powers that were dictatorial in nature. At the time of war, the American people willingly give up some of their liberties to ensure a victory.
There is no such danger today but the present administration has assumed dictatorial powers as they decide which laws they will enforce and which they will not.
The difference between a republic like America and a dictatorship like China is that this country is supposed to be run by law. There may well be laws passed that we do not like, but if they are laws passed by duly elected representatives, one is required to abide by those laws or suffer the consequences. When laws are established by Presidential decree, one should not feel obligated to obey those laws.
The American form of government was deliberately, by Constitution, set up in three branches each having distinct powers. This was designed to keep supreme power from falling into any one person’s, or group’s, power. Congress was to make the laws, the President to enforce those laws, and the Court was to define the laws and to settle disputes caused by the laws.
While the court today decides Constutionality of law, it has no Constitutional right to do so. This is a right that the Court has, over the years, taken for itself.
It began with Marbury v. Madison in 1803 and evolved from there.
Originally, the President, with this veto power, was the guardian of the Constitutionality of law. early Presidents accepted the idea that they could only veto a law if they felt it violated the Constitution. Today, Presidents use veto power to stop any law they and their party disagrees with.
It was not until after the Civil War that the Supreme Court became the activist court that it has evolved into today. The result of the Civil War made federal laws the supreme laws of the land.
Like it or not, the Tenth Amendment died with the surrender of General Robert E. Lee and the Confederate States of America. The Tenth Amendment states: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people”. While it has never been repealed it has been ignored for so long that it is no longer relevant.
This brings me back to the issue of the marijuana law in Colorado. Can a state law violate federal law? One would think not, but they would be wrong.
The State of California, in violation of federal law, has admitted an illegal alien to the bar. San Francisco now has a fully accredited lawyer, an illegal alien, who is practicing law in violation of federal law.
Before you beat me up for being insensitive to the plight of the illegal immigrant, let me make it clear I don’t care if every illegal alien is made a legal citizen; as long as it is done legally through an act of Congress.
The issue is that there is a law of the land that has been passed by duly elected representatives of the people of the United States. Either enforce the law or change it.
This happens all throughout the history of America. It was once legal to hold a man in servitude. That changed. It was once illegal to sell, or manufacture for sale, alcohol. That changed. Laws change. But until the law is changed, it should be enforced. That is what makes America a republic and not a dictatorship where the leader gets to pick and choose what laws are passed and enforced.
Thought of the week…The very definition of a republic is an empire of laws, and not of men.
-John Adams
