Everyone thinks they know what the People want. It’s the arrogance of assuming what they want reflects what all normal people want, indulging in the fantasy that they’re normal, or at the very least, in the majority. They forget those election nights when their favorite candidate lost, crashed and burned, when no reasonable person could vote for the other guy.
But there are manifestations of what the People want. Hard, irrefutable proof of the Will of the People. It happens when a referendum is placed on a ballot and the People put their hand to paper, to switch, to digital button, and vote. By their vote, they make their will clear.
This happened a couple of weeks ago in the states of Washington and Colorado. The issue on the table was whether to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. It’s a controversial issue, and one that has sound arguments on both sides. In both Washington and Colorado, the People spoke. The Will of the People was to legalize marijuana.
But that’s not the end of the story. The federal government has persisted in keeping marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug, which means it’s a drug with a high level of abuse and no medicinal purpose. It’s irrational and scientifically unjustifiable, but it remains on Schedule 1 because of rhetoric rather than reality. And because it does, it remains a focus of investigation and prosecution under federal law, even if state law says otherwise.
Federal law reflects the will of politicians and government officials. It doesn’t mean they don’t think their will reflects what’s best for the people, and they may well wrap themselves up in the same arrogance we all do, that they know better. The same arguments made for and against marijuana legalization are well known in Washington, and officials have tacitly voted against it.
Most elected officials believe that by dint of their office, they embody the Will of the People. It’s hard to maintain this self-serving fiction, however, when an actual vote declares they do not. They can attribute the vote to ignorance, or misleading information, but then, the same can be said of an electorate that put them in office. The choice is to either honor the vote or ignore it. To ignore it is to disavow the Will of the People.
How this plays out in Washington and Colorado is now in the hands of the Department of Justice and the Attorney General, Eric Holder. He has federal laws that inform him that marijuana is illegal. He has state laws that inform him that the People no longer want it to be. Which takes precedence? And if he honors state laws legalizing marijuana, how does he send his armed troops across an imaginary border to arrest people for a crime that can put them in prison for decades that is perfectly lawful a few feet away?
Today, at 9:00 a.m., Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) will present a letter to the Attorney General of the United State of America in Washington, D,C.
The Will of the People
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The parallel with prohibition is clear. The public was able to stop the local police from enforcing prohibition in a number of the States and the task was too large for the corrupt federal agents to manage. “Last Call” by Daniel Okrent gives the history of both the beginning and end of prohibition.
Most people do not want to be crime victims or to victimize others so they don’t do conventional crime. OTOH some habitually violate laws they don’t agree with. My take is they don’t consider them to be conventional crimes but rather unwarranted interference in their right to choose how they behave.
Good for you for avoiding all discussion for or against legalizing marijuana in favor of framing this in stark constitutional terms. Your analysis of the importance of this issue in respect to the foundation of our government is exactly right. After many years of reading arguments on both sides of the legalization debate I rarely see a point of view that’s both enlightening and new to me. Yours as expressed here is both. Nice work.
The ‘War’ on Drugs is actually over a century old. And its progress can be measured by the fact that the general public is no longer terribly concerned about the terribly crime of drug abuse.
Perhaps the legalization of marijuana is indeed a horrible mistake, and the federal officials striving to keep it a Schedule 1 drug are correct. But if a government by the people means anything, it means the right for the people to make mistakes.
Too many lies (‘Reefer Madness’ et. al.) have been told in support of the war on drugs for any reasonable citizen to believe any government pronouncement as to the evils of drugs.
This presents an conundrum, at leat to my eyes, Scott
Quote SHG
” across an imaginary border to arrest people for a crime “
Now, what is the difference between your ” imaginary Border “
and
” in this State ” ….??
What …??
Your Defendants are not advised they are Members of a Body Politic known as ” this State ” ..??
Not sure what part of this is confusing. Sorry.