Editorial: They Can't Stop the Buying and Selling of Pot

[Jim Finnel]

CO: The Senate Judiciary Committee wisely rejected one odd proposal Monday that sought to allow only individuals, not stores, to sell medical marijuana. Attorney General John Suthers supported the measure, along with some prosecutors, and it's a fair bet the constitutional rights of citizens to cultivate, buy and sell marijuana may come under continued assault until the legislature adjourns.

Expect some legislators and lawyers to speak mumbo jumbo, saying dispensaries are illegal. They'll tell us how a city council or county board of commissioners has some mysterious right to ban cultivation and commercial sales. No matter what they say, the state constitution clearly has more authority. It directly protects the cultivation and sale of medical marijuana. Amendment 20 says ( emphasis added by Gazette ): "'Medical use' means the acquisition, possession, production, use, or transportation of marijuana..."

The right to acquisition, possession and use requires the right to buy, sell and grow. It's just that simple. A local government cannot prohibit the sale or cultivation of marijuana without violating the right to possess, use and acquire it. Legislatures cannot pass laws that violate individual rights protected by constitutional law.

"There are all sorts of constitional problems with this bill," said Jessica Peck Corry, a Denver attorney who frequently argues the benefits of marijuana legalization on Fox News.

Arapahoe County District Court Judge Christopher Cross ruled in December that Coloradans have a constitutional right to buy marijuana, when he ruled against Centennial's moratorium on dispensaries by granting an injunction against the city to CannaMart medical marijuana dispensary. The plaintiff was represented by Corry's husband, the formidable civil rights attorney Robert Corry.

"These are people who have a right to medical marijuana, the right to the caregiver of their choice. That has been taken away from them," Cross said, putting the kibosh on Centennial's blatant attempt to break state law.

Legislators can vote and talk all they want in Denver this week. When they're done, individuals will retain the legal right to buy, sell and grow medical marijuana throughout Colorado. The Legislature, like elected city and county politicians, cannot undo our constitutional rights.


NewsHawk: User: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: Gazette, The (Colorado Springs, CO)
Copyright: 2010 The Gazette
Contact: Submit a Letter : Colorado Springs Gazette, CO
Website: Colorado Springs News & Information : Colorado Springs Gazette, CO
Author: Wayne Laugesen

 

[disvet13]

the Constitutional rights of all Americans have been blatantly abused by the prohibitionists. The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness was extinguished. President Woodrow Wilson recognized the subtle changes, and I quote "a small group of contemptible men have made us a contemptible nation". it was a computer virus, injected into the thought process of government, and now the virus has all but shut down the nation. we are buried with every lawyer and politician, and the taxpayer cost thereof, all following their own agenda's. the DEA, all drug nazi's, playing war, like true boyscouts, all holier than thou, jump stepping to the greater government, whose only ambition is more government, and more drug nazi's, willing to fight to the bitter end your right to grow a plant, and grow your own medicine, and grow your own bio-fuel, and grow your own clothes, and grow the best carbon sequestration while saving trees and soil, and grow your own smoke, without added carcinogens, and additives that make you crave smoking more, and grow your own relaxation from stress and turmoil instead of drinking alcohol. wouldn't you just love to grow your own for pennies? instead of the compromised tax at 50$ per ounce. it's the greed of lawyers and politicians who have made us a contemptible nation, overrun with gang violence and drive by shootings of innocent by-standers, just so the DEA can play drug nazi boyscout. it will only get worse, more helicopters, more drug nazi's, it's a downward, ever escalating spiral into total control by government, and more government, simply for greed and special interests, abusing their power in government. once power is obtained, it is never relinquished without a fight. the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of tyrants and patriots. the tyrants are gearing up to defeat, what's your battle plan?

 

[Funboy]

While I can relate to your bitter state of mind, I am still glad that at least to SOME degree Democracy is still working. Yes, it is a convoluted and twisted, but it is still in place. I can legally grow and smoke my own in my state. Thank you Rob Corry.