The nation’s marijuana laws are an overlapping mess. Possession is illegal under federal law while an impressive list of states, including Colorado, brazenly defy Washington’s edict by allowing marijuana for medical use. Congress should have resolved this conflict years agobut now at last it has its chance.
A bill, whose sponsors include Rep. Jared Polis, D-Boulder, would not legalize marijuana, but rather remove it from the federal government’s list of controlled substances. That would enable states that have legalized medical marijuana — which include such major population centers as California, New Jersey and Michigan — to craft and enforce their own laws without conflict with the feds.
Those states may be operating outside of federal law, but it’s with their citizens’ consent. State and local officials, as well as dispensaries and their clients, deserve a reprieve from this twilight zone in which federal authorities could change their mind at any moment and charge them with crimes.
Earlier this year, the clash between state and federal law came into sharp focus when federal prosecutors essentially fired warning shots at proposals in several states despite previous assurances they would not target those who followed state laws.
John Walsh, U.S. attorney for Colorado, took issue with a proposed law that would have created a license for large-scale marijuana-infused manufacturing facilities. Similarly, other U.S. attorneys threatened enforcement of federal law against big operations.
The result was trepidation among medical marijuana business owners who had operated in line with what they thought was a relaxation of federal enforcement.
We haven’t and won’t defend the ambition of medical marijuana businesses that seem determined to interpret the 2009 Justice Department pronouncement in the most expansive light.
We also have said on several occasions that we do not think voters were approving back-door legalization when they supported a 2000 state constitutional amendment allowing medical marijuana. Indeed, straight-up legalization failed overwhelmingly in Colorado in 2006 and would probably fail again if voters are given another shot at the issue in 2012.
If voters were to approve legalization, of course, the conflict with federal law would only sharpen.
That’s why we think this congressional measure makes sense.
To be sure, the bill still would allow for some federal enforcement — in cases, for instance, of trafficking between states. But mostly it would take the feds out of the enforcement equation.
Such a change would all but eliminate the confusion between state and federal law and allow for clear enforcement of established rules.
