Sunday, October 14, 2007
Mile "High" City
One of the most publicized events associated with legalizing marijuana came when in Denver, Colorado in 2005, up to an ounce of marijuana was legal for 21 year olds and up. More cities should follow the actions of Denver. Denver’s police force along with other cities like Seattle and Oakland has deemed marijuana the lowest priority for police enforcement. I believe this is extremely important for these cities to set precedence towards decreasing enforcement on marijuana and increasing enforcement on more detrimental crimes. The problem that still lies in Colorado is that it is legal in Denver, but as far as state constitutions go, it is illegal. If more prominent cities would legalize or decriminalize marijuana to some degree, the marijuana legalization movement could take off nationally. This could eliminate the contradictory and confusion created by differing municipal, state, and national governments on marijuana.
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5 comments:
How would marijuana become legal if a couple cities declare it illegal. There is the supremacy clause where the federal government law takes precedent if there is a difference. If the local governments decides to declare it legal, the state and federal law enforcers can still prosecute for marijuana. With all the bad hype that is associated with marijuana, like it being a gateway drug, what chance does it actually stand of becoming legal.
The municipal governments in this case declared it legal to have up to an ounce in Denver. However, previously delegated state laws on marijuana deem it illegal for possesion. Im assuming it depends on who is prosecuting you, whether its a state police or the city police as to what the penalties would be. It will probably take a long time for a cause with this much negative stigma to recieve backing by any large group of serious congressional leaders.
You say that if marijuana was legalized it would limit confusion...but earlier you say that it should be legalized "to some degree." How would this be determined, and wouldn't this make it more confusing and complicated? How would this be enforced?
The point i was going for was that if federal marijuana laws were consistent with municipal and state laws then confusion would be decreased. But since there are different laws at all levels right now there is confusion. A national effort rather than individual state and city efforts would cure this. I thought that if you tried to start from the bottom up, you would need prominent cities to lead the charge to get national attention in order to change laws on the federal level.
Legalization needs defined limits like in this case where it is limited to only an ounce of marijuana. Realistically an average user is not going to need to have even close to an ounce on them for personal use.
Thats a good idea. If more cities follow oakland, denver, and seattle then eventually all cities could follow in their path and marijuana will eventually become legal. If the government makes it legal, then they can control the kind of marijuana and can make if safe so its not laced with other drugs.
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