CDR: RE: California bars free speech of those cutting deals on votes

[Tim May]

At 1:14 PM -0500 11/1/00, Trei, Peter wrote:
>  > Bill Stewart[SMTP:bill.stewart at pobox.com]
>
>  > Massachusetts looks like the kind of state that has
>>  more pot smokers than registered Republicans.
>>  Somebody ought to be able to use that....
>>
>>					Bill
>  >
>Somebody is. Prop 8 would allow drug offenders (including low
>level dealers) to opt for treatment over prison, and would
>require all fines, seized funds, and profits from the sale of
>stolen^H^H^H^H^H^Hforfeited property in drug cases to be
>used to finance treatment.
>
>I think one other state has a similar proposition this year, and
>another (New Mexico?) has had a similar law in place for a
>while, to great success.

California passed the Medical Marijuana Initiative (more than once, 
as I recall, as the Fedgov found "technicalities" to strike it down 
the first time it passed).

No "interstate commerce" is involved (*), for most home-grown pot, 
and yet the Fedgov has asserted the claim that federal dietary laws 
take precedence over local dietary laws.

(* As we know, the interstate commerce clause was oriented toward 
making sure that only the Federal government could imposes tariffs on 
goods moving between the states. This was to head off a flurry of 
opportunisitc tariffs imposed by the states. It had _nothing_ to do 
with the notion that if a book publisher, for example, ships books 
across state lines that the Federal government then has some means to 
regulate the content. This seems to be commonly misunderstood; not by 
Cypherpunks, but I'm repeating this just to make sure.)

If these United States were functioning as intended, this and similar 
cases would go to the Supreme Court and the Court would find that the 
states cannot be told what to by the Fedgov in matters like this.

But we have not been functioning as intended for most of the past century.


--Tim May
-- 
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Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
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