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This entry was originally posted as a homework assignment:
In UNIT 1B, the concept of Federalism was discussed. Included in the readings were examples of issues that have arisen under the umbrella of state's rights. Pick one of the examples from the readings, or use one of your own, and discuss it here based on what you learned in Unit 1.
What is the issue? Describe it briefly.
Is it appropriate to be regulated by a state or should it be regulated at the national level?
Why is this issue important? How do you feel about it?
Include citations or URLs for your work to receive full credit, and provide substantive responses to the posts of at least two of your classmates.
Marijuana has to be, in my opinion, the one issue where conflict between State and Federal governments is well known. Though the public may not be well educated on the matter, myself included, the vast majority seems to have an opinion. Through some hasty research on the matter for this forum posting, I have a better understanding and some stronger opinions. I will concede, however, that the issue is not of great importance to me; therefore my knowledge is still lacking and I have no interest in researching the issue further for the sake of this writing.
Marijuana is classified, federally, as a Schedule I drug—one which holds a high potential for abuse and has no medicinal purpose. The federal government seems to wish to continue to keep this classification and enforce the penalties of use or possession of the drug, and has continued to do so in some part through the commerce clause, as noted in the text. By making an argument over the possibilities of a black-market (which, as many of us know, already exists—it would simply go through some interesting changes) the Supreme Court ruled the growing of one's own marijuana in a state which allows for medicinal use to be illegal.
For this post, we were asked to answer whether the issue is one which should be handled on a state or federal level. In thinking about this topic, I believe that I see evidence off our Supreme Court asking itself that very question. Rather than giving better argument on what may be a more obvious piece of federal law—rather than arguing that federal law sees the drug as being as dangerous as heroin—the Supreme Court uses the commerce clause. Why? Perhaps the Court feared taking that step which would actually challenge the boundaries of what rights the federal and state governments have.
Personally, I believe that the issue of the legality of marijuana in any form taken in any manner should be at the discretion of the states. I do, however, believe that a firm decision needs to be made at the federal level in either direction.
This assignment received the following comments:
From Ryan McFarland:
Jeremiah, very well stated, but where did you get your information from? I have say that because I deal with the drug marijuana day in and day out at work, I do not think leaving the law up to the state will be good enough. By giving each state a choice is only making the law more difficult. It needs to either be illegal or legal. By all means I feel it should be illegal, no matter what. In my state, Connecticut, they just decriminalized marijuana and we have to issue infractions for possession of marijuana. If your going to decriminalize the drug, why not make it legal, sell it in a store and tax the sale of it. Get something out of everyones habit. It would be a start if nothing else.
Ryan
From Prof. Keith Carlson:
Remember to cite your sources for all submitted posts in this course.Thanks!
From Jessica Meehan:
Hi Jeremiah!
I think you had a lot of very helpful information in your post. I agree that many people do not know many facts about this, myself for example, but we do seem to have somewhat of an opinion on this matter. I also agree that the goverment should have an opinion. I myself dont know enough about this issue to really make a firm decision whether it should be legalized for medical use or not. Good post!
Tags: #American Public University, #APUS, #college, #POLS210, #school
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