Bill Introduced to Congress would Leave Marijuana up to States

[TrPrado]

Recently I mentioned on this subforum that I mostly only pay attention to state/local politics, but given that later this month Oklahoma will hold a ballot question vote on whether to legalize medical marijuana, when I saw a headline about this my interest was piqued. The language of the bill can be found here, but to sum up it would essentially make it to where marijuana related offense are only Federal crimes when they are not in compliance with the relevant state.

Even more interesting is that it seems to have a very decent chance of passing. Senator Cory Gardner (R-CO) seems to be the main person pushing the bill and for a while claims he'd struck a deal with Trump on the issue, which is backed up by Trump stating earlier today that he would probably end up supporting the bill. Now, as a Diplomacy player I know his exact words were pretty non-binding, but either way it's very interesting to see this development of policy.

[CroakandDagger]

Generally decentralisation is a positive, but didn't Americans fight a war to do away with state rights?

[TrPrado]

Well in that case I think you can submit this as evidence that that wasn't the point of that war.

[Randomizer]

Republicans are usually state rights except where the state is against their agenda.

Here in Arizona, the state is using federal criminalization of marijuana to restrict sales after a state referendum legalized it. But that's par for the course because the Republican controlled government hates voters and their ability to pass legislation by referendum so they are making it harder to get it on the ballot.

[TrPrado]

Republicans are usually state rights except where the state is against their agenda.

Here in Arizona, the state is using federal criminalization of marijuana to restrict sales after a state referendum legalized it. But that's par for the course because the Republican controlled government hates voters and their ability to pass legislation by referendum so they are making it harder to get it on the ballot.

It’s a Republican sponsored bill and statements from Senators indicate that this bill would be pretty bipartisan.

[Kingdroid]

Generally decentralisation is a positive, but didn't Americans fight a war to do away with state rights?

Even if that were true (it's not), it wouldn't be a relevant point, considering how long ago the war in question was, as you're citing a *trend* not anything that is written in the constitution.

[CroakandDagger]

I'm just saying that there's precedent for the States to go to war with each other when the House is divided against itself.

Do you think that promoting disunity at a time when cross-party respect and dialogue is at an all-time low is a good idea? Do you think that neither side would ever consider violence to enforce their doctrine on the states that do not align with them?

[Kingdroid]

I'm just saying that there's precedent for the States to go to war with each other when the House is divided against itself.

Do you think that promoting disunity at a time when cross-party respect and dialogue is at an all-time low is a good idea? Do you think that neither side would ever consider violence to enforce their doctrine on the states that do not align with them?

I think that there's a very low chance of that considering that the states have very little individual control of the military, as can be evidenced by the federal government taking control of the Arkansas national guard in order to promote integration of the public schools in Little Rock during the Civil rights movement.

But I do think the federal government needs to pass a law legalizing medical Marijuana, at the very least. Though I reckon if the federal govt stops enforcing criminalization, most states will be forced to pass legalization anyways.