Upon reading this post, I immediately thought of the Pot Republic video. In the video, the sheriff of Mendocino county received a letter from the federal government that told him that he needed to halt his program for legal marijuana growers. This was definitely not a coincidence with next year's election coming up. Currently U.S. Attorneys are cracking down on medical marijuana advertisement in newspapers, radio commercials and other forms of medias in California. This seems to be very suspicious. It seems to me that the federal government is trying to show that the Obama administration is not going to tolerate the medical marijuana business only a year before the 2012 election. Personally, I think that they are trying to gain support for Obama's reelection. They never really enforced the law when Obama first came into office, so by enforcing it now they can look like they really care.
What was really interesting is that the federal government doesn't regulate advertisement of pharmaceutical drugs so strictly. Medical marijuana is a "pharmaceutical drug" since it is used to treat glaucoma and other diseases. Though medical marijuana is legal in California, it is illegal under the Federal government. This brings up the idea of federal supremacy. The federal government's laws will always trump those of the states. I guess we will have to see until after the election if the crackdown continues or lets up.
http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/feds-target-newspapers-radio-marijuana-ads-13049
What was really interesting is that the federal government doesn't regulate advertisement of pharmaceutical drugs so strictly. Medical marijuana is a "pharmaceutical drug" since it is used to treat glaucoma and other diseases. Though medical marijuana is legal in California, it is illegal under the Federal government. This brings up the idea of federal supremacy. The federal government's laws will always trump those of the states. I guess we will have to see until after the election if the crackdown continues or lets up.
http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/feds-target-newspapers-radio-marijuana-ads-13049
3 comments:
I totally agree with all of Mitchell's comments. And I'm sure the Federal government is cracking down on medical marijuana growers to gain public favor before the big 2012 election. This corresponds to what we've been studying these past few weeks--incumbents and the process of re-election, and the various 'special interests' groups that politicians must attend to in order to remain in office/gain re-election votes. Personally, I think this cycle of 'wealthy people-->buying votes-->become incumbents-->constantly re-elected' is utterly disgusting and is a poor reflection on the American government. Looks like democracy isn't so democratic after all.
-Keaton Gee
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