States Rights; that's what caught my interest in the header.
It's undergoing a profound change in its meaning and application over the last several years. Growing up in the west, SR was always about segregation, the poll tax, B. vs Board, Orval Faubus with oatmeal dripping on his tie (according to my freshman English teacher), Bull Connors, Lester Maddux, George Wallace.
Lately, it has come to mean something entirely different in the west. SR means Oregon's Right to Die, and about 9 states with medical marijuana. When the MedMar case went to the Supes recently, La, and I think one other traditional southern SR state, came in as Amica curie or whatever, with Cal, behind only the issue of SR. I'm not sure if they want the precedent so they can give stricter drug sentences, or behind gay marriages. I don't know if they have, or will appear on behalf of Ore.
In fact, I maintain that, by constitutional precedent, the feds have no right to ban weed. The Constitution grants authority to the feds to regulate only one drug. In the early 20th century, in an effort to nationalize and internationalize the Mafia, the Constitution was amended to ban alcohol. A few years later, mission accomplished, the Constitution unbanned alcohol. No other drug is regulated by those words written on hemp. So, by all constitutional precedent, not to mention the 9th and 10th amendments, the feds have no authority to regulate intrastate commerce in either weed or hemp. |
