So it’s not so much STONER vs STONER nowadays when it comes down to Proposition 19, the ballot initiative that’ll give Californians the ability to legalize marijuana for all adults 21 and up, it looks like it’s going to be a battle of the heavyweights; not stoners vs prohibitionists, or dispensary owners vs police or neighbor vs neighbor…things have become sooo much larger…now it looks like it’s going to come down to a battle between the United States Drug Enforcement Administration vs the great state of California.
Not just one, or two, or NINE…but every single past administrator of the 37-year-old Drug Enforcement Administration is against the legalization of marijuana. And, they’re demanding the US Justice Department sue California if its voters legalize marijuana this November!
Fighting among marijuana activists began dividing the community even before Proposition 19, formally called the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Initiative, even qualified for the ballot. In one corner, activists think Proposition 19 will allow big business to pervert weed, tank a legitimate and a separate underground economy and change current freedoms enjoyed by marijuana patients while some activists see it as the Holy Grail…legalization for the WIN! But this infighting…pales in comparison to what looks to be brewing as the end of marijuana prohibition could mean an eventual demise to the failing War on Drugs and the unjustifiably expensive DEA that fights it.
So, Peter Bensinger, who ran the DEA from January 1976 through July 1981, said “legalizing recreational use of weed, even in one state, would be a disaster, leading to increased addiction, traffic accidents and trouble in the workplace.”
To drive home his message, Bensinger and eight other former crusty-ol’ DEA dudes have issued a preemptive cock block to President Obama and the White House saying if California does legalize weed in the fall…then the President should sue California because Proposition 19 directly conflicts with the Controlled Substances Act and goes against the administration’s 2010 national drug strategy, which “firmly opposes the legalization of marijuana or any other illicit drug,” according to a letter the ex-DEA dudes wrote to Attorney General Eric Holder on August 24. It also points out the potential legalization of marijuana would challenge federal authority and merit a lawsuit against the state…much like the one Obama filed in protest of Arizona’s immigration law, which the administration said contradicted national policy.
But, Bruce Fein, a prop 19 supporter, who served in the Justice Department as an associate deputy attorney general during the Reagan era doesn’t see it that way. He says, “Proposition 19 leaves the power of the federal government to enforce federal prohibitions on marijuana trafficking or use unimpaired.” He also says “Nothing in the Constitution requires a state to prohibit as a matter of state law and prosecution what the federal government has chosen to prohibit as a matter of federal law and prosecution.”
And, that sounds a lot like what Attorney General Eric Holder said last year when he ordered the feds to stop busting medical marijuana patients and weed business complying with the law.
So far, the Obama administration and Holder haven’t responded, but keep in mind what happened recently here in California with Proposition 8 and gay marriage. The people voted for a ban…the courts went against the will of the people and lifted the ban. The very same thing can and most-likely will happen here in CA if Californians vote yes on marijuana this November.
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One Response to “ALL Former DEA Admins Aim to Block Marijuana Legalization in CA”
DeadDoug666
The DEA Admin (Drug Czar) is required BY LAW to oppose any legalization efforts that are put forth. It’s not just these guys ‘being dicks’; they are required by law to do so.