Thread: Our Justice Department, marijuana, illegal entrants and adhering to our Constitution

See Justice Department to crack down on legal marijuana with roll back of Obama policy


”WASHINGTON – As part of a crackdown on legal marijuana, the Justice Department is set to roll back an Obama administration policy to not challenge state laws that allow people to use pot for medical and recreational uses an official familiar with matter said Thursday.”


I don’t know what our current Justice Department has in mind with regard to cracking down on legal marijuana. But I do know our Federal government has absolutely no constitutionally authorized power to prosecute citizens within a state who may be engaged in the manufacture, sale or transportation of marijuana within their State’s borders.


How do I know this to be true? Prior to the adoption of the 18th Amendment, our federal government had no authority to enter a state and prosecute the people therein for the manufacture, sale and transportation of intoxicating liquors. Their hands were tied by our Constitution. After the adoption of the 18th Amendment Eliot Ness became the first federal agent, and acting under our Constitution, to enter a state and arrest those engaged in the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors. With the adoption of the 18th Amendment our federal government and the several states had concurrent power to enforce prohibition and prosecute those engaged in the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors.



But this power granted to our federal government was later withdrawn by the 21st Amendment in the following words:


”The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.”


And thus, our federal governments’ power over intoxicating liquors within a state’s borders evaporated with the repeal of the 18th Amendment and adoption of the 21st Amendment!


In addition, the authority of the various states to once again exercise and assume sovereign control over their own internal affairs and regulate intoxicating liquors, as the people in each state feel is in their own states best interests was intentionally taken back, and in crystal clear language, by section two of the 21st Amendment which reads:


”The transportation or importation into any State, territory, or possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited.”


So, the only federal authority over marijuana which is constitutionally based would be over the people of one state transporting it into another state without the receiving state’s consent for its sale or use.


One final note. I fully support our federal government using its constitutionally authorized powers to prosecute and severely punish all those who would dare to transport their intoxicating substances into a state for sale or distribution without that state’s permission. And when I say “severely punish”, the minimum jail time ought to be at least five years! We need to re-establish federalism, our Constitution’s plan, and strictly observe the defined and limited powers granted to our federal government. The people of the various United States need to take back their country and enforce their written constitution and its documented legislative intent, which gives context to its text!


If Jeff Sessions wants to do something useful, then prosecute the Mayors of sanctuary cities and the Governor of California for harboring illegal entrants.


JWK


"The Constitution is the act of the people, speaking in their original character, and defining the permanent conditions of the social alliance; and there can be no doubt on the point with us, that every act of the legislative power contrary to the true intent and meaning of the Constitution, is absolutely null and void. ___ Chancellor James Kent, in his Commentaries on American Law [1858]

I totally 100% agree with you, johnwk. Jeff Sessions whines he doesn't have enough DOJ resources to cure the 650,000 illegal alien deportee back-log in DOJ, but suddenly he's got time and resources in DOJ to arrest marijuana users.

"SAD!"

Apparently Trump's plan is to shake it up to motivate Congress to remove marijuana and hemp from the controlled substances act as they both should be. I hope Congress acts on this swiftly and completely for all marijuana and all hemp plants. DEA and DOJ need to focus their drug control attention on foreign drug cartels shipping in illegal foreign drugs and hauling our money out of the country while using illegal aliens to do the shipping in and hauling out, as well as get a grip on this horrible opioid addiction emergency.

Weed should be a state and local option issue just like alcohol and managed in the same way as alcohol and tobacco in ATF. From a business and tax standpoint, the more legal weed transaction, the more federal and state taxes that are collected. There's no reason at all after all these years of the failed War on Drugs to allow a $300 billion a year drug trade to operate unregulated and untaxed. Makes no sense at all to continue this childish idiotic dangerous deadly War on Drugs. In fact, I support legalization of all recreational drugs with good regulations to manage quality and quantity, and if taxed under the FairTax, use some of the taxes collected that only drug users pay to fund better education of the real risks and consequences of using drugs, the costs of regulation and free drug rehab on demand without stigma or consequences for anyone who wants or needs it.

That removes the cost of recreational drug rehab from health insurance which would reduce health insurance costs as well, and only drug users are paying for it. With the FairTax, you could do the same thing with alcohol addiction.

Originally Posted by Judy

I totally 100% agree with you, johnwk. Jeff Sessions whines he doesn't have enough DOJ resources to cure the 650,000 illegal alien deportee back-log in DOJ, but suddenly he's got time and resources in DOJ to arrest marijuana users.

"SAD!"

Jeff Sessions is attempting to exercise a regulatory power not granted by our Constitution.

Sessions needs to take a moment and study the text of our Constitution and its documented legislative intent which gives context to its text. And after doing that, he ought to start prosecuting the Mayors of Sanctuary cities and Governors who are harboring illegal entrants and allowing an invasion of our borders.


JWK

The whole aim of construction, as applied to a provision of the Constitution, is to discover the meaning, to ascertain and give effect to the intent of its framers and the people who adopted it._____HOME BLDG. & LOAN ASS'N v. BLAISDELL, 290 U.S. 398 (1934)

You are absolutely right about this one, johnwk. I totally agree with you.