Colin Kim
Federalism Assignment
Topic: Medical Marijuana
Summary:Approximately one year ago, Congress had approved a bill that stated that the Department of Justice, which consequently included the DEA(Drug Enforcement Administration) was not allowed to spend money to stop states from making laws regarding medical cannabis. The correlation of this information to now is the fact that this bill was included in the spending bill passed in December of 2015. This raised much public confusion as some individuals and groups(including reporters for the New York Times and Medical Daily) had taken this bill to mean that Congress had legalized the use of medical cannabis. Some individuals (inferred by the article) were still upset and confused due to …show more content…
Federalism entails the idea that multiple levels of government rule and govern over essentially the same people and territory. This basically means that the federal government and the state government govern over the same population, just in different methods/levels of authority(Federal encompasses State government). In regards to this topic, the contradiction stems from the fact that the federal government bans the use of drugs with, essentially, no exceptions yet more than a third of the states have legislation that refers to the allowance of medical marijuana(ie actual use/distribution/growing). As one can see, the federal and state law are in conflict with one another. From a strictly legal standpoint, the Controlled Substance Act views the legality of medical marijuana at the same level as drugs like cocaine or heroin and considers cannabis to be an extremely dangerous addictive substance. States however, have multiple regulations and taxes that are directly connected to the incorporation of medical marijuana. From this basic paradox (as the federal law bans something that states have legalized regardless of the fact that federal law is above state law which is portrayed through the Supremacy Clause), the current issue begins. Congress has been avoiding addressing any sort of ban or allowance for medical marijuana as doing so could lead to a massive escalation of the already heated debates which would inevitably lead to problems that affect some of the other issues that the federal government has to deal with (ie potentially takes longer time to do other things and diverts focus away from issues like education and welfare). This brings up issues in itself as a vast majority of the federal government depends on the actions of state law enforcers to carry out investigations regarding medical marijuana. The contradiction between federal
Federalism Assignment
Topic: Medical Marijuana
Summary:Approximately one year ago, Congress had approved a bill that stated that the Department of Justice, which consequently included the DEA(Drug Enforcement Administration) was not allowed to spend money to stop states from making laws regarding medical cannabis. The correlation of this information to now is the fact that this bill was included in the spending bill passed in December of 2015. This raised much public confusion as some individuals and groups(including reporters for the New York Times and Medical Daily) had taken this bill to mean that Congress had legalized the use of medical cannabis. Some individuals (inferred by the article) were still upset and confused due to …show more content…
Federalism entails the idea that multiple levels of government rule and govern over essentially the same people and territory. This basically means that the federal government and the state government govern over the same population, just in different methods/levels of authority(Federal encompasses State government). In regards to this topic, the contradiction stems from the fact that the federal government bans the use of drugs with, essentially, no exceptions yet more than a third of the states have legislation that refers to the allowance of medical marijuana(ie actual use/distribution/growing). As one can see, the federal and state law are in conflict with one another. From a strictly legal standpoint, the Controlled Substance Act views the legality of medical marijuana at the same level as drugs like cocaine or heroin and considers cannabis to be an extremely dangerous addictive substance. States however, have multiple regulations and taxes that are directly connected to the incorporation of medical marijuana. From this basic paradox (as the federal law bans something that states have legalized regardless of the fact that federal law is above state law which is portrayed through the Supremacy Clause), the current issue begins. Congress has been avoiding addressing any sort of ban or allowance for medical marijuana as doing so could lead to a massive escalation of the already heated debates which would inevitably lead to problems that affect some of the other issues that the federal government has to deal with (ie potentially takes longer time to do other things and diverts focus away from issues like education and welfare). This brings up issues in itself as a vast majority of the federal government depends on the actions of state law enforcers to carry out investigations regarding medical marijuana. The contradiction between federal