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Obama momentarily rediscovers Federalism as he panders to the stoner vote

Gee whiz, President Obama can endorse Federalism when it suits him to. In a reversal of long-standing US Government policy Mr. Obama has instructed his Justice Department to stop prosecuting marijuana users in states where it has been legalized for "medicinal" purposes. (h/t Memeorandum and Instapundit)

Yeah California, where something like 2 out of every 3 people now have a prescription for "medical" marijuana is concerned about the potential for abuse. Sure. New Jersey is headed down the same misguided path, and soon we too will be inundated by the unkempt hordes seeking their daily doses of mind-numbing therapy. Who knew there were so many suffering cancer patients?

Pass the Doritos, dude!

But Federalism means that the several states are free to experiment with differing approaches within the confines of their borders. If Californians can say with a straight face that each and every storefront marijuana dispensary is on the up and up, and there isn't a single "patient" out there who hasn't fibbed just a tad about his alleged nausea, who am I to rain on their parade.

Obama's momentary embrace of Federalism is admirable if undenyably self-serving. He gets to poke a stick in the eye of another Bush administration policy and pander to his hard-left base too. (Them liberals sure do like their weed, don't they? -- Ed.) Now if he'd only allow the states to set policy in a whole host of other areas the Feds have no business poking their noses into.

Fat chance of that.

When it comes to Federalism and the issues that really matter (gun control, school vouchers, lower drinking ages, blood-alcohol thresholds, speed limits, health care, sports betting, etc, etc) his Big Brother paternalism is front and center. So we have the delicious dichotomy of Federal drugs laws suddenly being overridden by state medicinal marijuana regulations while the very same Justice Department is aggressively harassing the states which don't toe the Federal line on "assault weapons".

Because you know, a gun legally purchased in Kentucky might end up on the streets of Philadelphia, but marijuana bought with a prescription in California would never be resold to schoolkids in Newark. Nope, couldn't happen, the stoners swore they were buying that dope for their own personal use!

Hey, nobody said that Liberal "logic" made sense!

There is of course one other area of Federal law that President Obama is also loathe to enforce, although certainly not for the sake of Federalism, and with a much lower profile. That policy too can be traced to pandering for votes, the ultimate goal for which no mere law can be allowed to interfere.

Posted at 17:38 by Chris Wysocki   [/obama_watch]   Comments | Archived | Perm Link |
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