Reality Check 101

On March 5th, an amazing thing happened.  Eight former chiefs of the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration), representing four presidential administrations from both parties, called upon Eric Holder and his Department of Justice (DOJ) to enforce federal marijuana statutes.

 On the same day, the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), an agency of the United Nations, called upon the United States to honor international drug treaties.  The U.S. delegate to the INCB voiced a rebuke from the agency by stating that “The entire international system is based on countries respecting the rules, and there’s a broad fabric of international treaties that are part and parcel to that”.  For the INCB, the apparent weakness of the U.S. “undermine[s] the humanitarian aims of the drug control system and are a threat to public health and well-being”.

 It is no small matter that demands on the Obama administration to actually enforce laws have surfaced simultaneously from both domestic and international sources.  Since Colorado and Washington legalized recreational use of pot in November in defiance of federal law, the DOJ has been silent and unresponsive.  In addition, in December, the president of the United States signaled his disdain for controlling this schedule one drug by declaring that his administration “has bigger fish to fry”.

 There are several potential hazards to the nation involved here, not the least of which are constitutional ones.  The first most obvious one is that once again the branch of government charged with enforcing law – not making it or judging it, is ignoring it and doing so without consequence.  The examples of willful impotence and anti-constitutional behaviors are growing – Fast and Furious, refusal to enforce the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), out-of-control illegal immigration, the Benghazi cover-up and now, of all things, marijuana. 

 Elements in our own government and powers in the rest of the world are worried and for good reason.  No nation that claims to be the fountain of such liberty as we have historically enjoyed can survive to share its benefits with others if its own government cannot be held accountable to the authority of its own laws.

 And what of our great union of “United” states?  Our nation’s recent and past struggles between the supremacy of the federal government and state’s rights have taught the need for careful loyalty to the Constitution’s literal formula, both Article VI and the Tenth Amendment.  If federalism means anything, federal drug statutes which provide for common health and safety must carry the day.

 The consequences of marijuana use extend outside of politics and law enforcement.  The eight former DEA administrators got it right when they noted that regular use damages the user’s ability to learn by impairing the ability to  “focus, sustain, and shift attention.”  They rightly observe that “Research has proven that marijuana is addictive.  It is the number one reason why children are admitted to substance abuse treatment in the United States and is second, behind alcohol, for adult treatment admissions. 

 Legalization of pot, whether under the cloak of  medicine or not, is a national hazard that carries with it irreversible consequences.   We cannot afford to go down that road.