Tenth Amendment Center

My home state of California usually interacts with the federal government by genuflecting. But, on a few issues – very few, that is – they’ve got plenty of backbone.

In this week’s podcast, Paul Armentano, Deputy Director of NORML discusses the unconstitutional nature of the war on marijuana, the history of marijuana prohibition in the U.S., the commerce clause as a federal excuse to regulate and prohibit various activities and more.

American marijuana prohibition began in 1937. Since its heyday in 1970, the federal government has defined marijuana as having a high potential for abuse and no currently accepted medical use in treatment.

Delawareans afflicted with a variety of chronic and painful conditions would be able to legally use medical marijuana to ease their suffering under a bill now under consideration in the Delaware State Senate.

Sen. Margaret Rose Henry (D-Wilmington East), said her bill isn’t an outright decriminalization of marijuana and is aimed at balancing compassion for the sick with maintaining tight controls on access and the amount of marijuana a person can have.

The House today voted 63 to 5 to approve legislation to allow the creation of compassion centers to dispense marijuana to patients in the state’s medical marijuana program.

If the legislation (2009-H 5359A), which is sponsored by Rep. Thomas C. Slater (D-Dist. 10, Providence), is enacted, Rhode Island would join California and New Mexico as the only states that allow medical marijuana dispensaries.

In a recent interview on Air America Radio, Ron Paul took a strong stand in support of the Constitution and State Sovereignty – by stating that laws and regulations of Marijuana should be on a state level.

“If California wants to legalize it, let ‘em legalize it,” Paul told host Richard Greene on Air America’s “Hollywood CLOUT!” program.

Rick Malone, executive director of the Prosecuting Attorney’s Council of Georgia, said few prosecutors would oppose decriminalization but suspected few legislators would want to take on the issue.

You’re not going to get anyone to repeal the marijuana laws because they don’t want the political heat but if you got them in a back room and asked about their use in their youth, you might be surprised at the result,” Malone said.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Tuesday that the time is right to debate legalizing marijuana for recreational use in California.

The governor’s comments were made as support grows nationwide for relaxing pot laws and only days after a poll found that for the first time a majority of California voters back legal marijuana.

by Anthony Gregory, LewRockwell.com
The following is based on a talk given at the Free State Project’s Liberty Forum in Nashua, New Hampshire, on Friday, March 6, 2009.
The Tenth Amendment says “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, [...]