Arkansas TeaPot Party Calls for Total Marijuana Legalization

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Richard Morton, head of the Arkansas TeaPot Party, is asking state lawmakers to legalize marijuana when the legislature convenes for its 2014 budget session.

Morton, of Shirley, is proposing the Willie Nelson Act, a law that would totally legalize marijuana in all forms. In addition, the law would release anyone from jail who is there on a nonviolent marijuana conviction. Since his law would allow the state to tax the marijuana, he believes it is an appropriate measure for lawmakers to consider during the budget session.

In previous legislative sessions, lawmakers have avoided introducing even limited marijuana measures, so it is unlikely that such a far-reaching measure would have any support among Arkansas lawmakers. And let’s not forget no matter what law a state legislature passes, marijuana is still 100% illegal to grow, sell, or possess under federal law.

More than half a dozen efforts are underway to make marijuana legal in Arkansas. This latest effort shows us where things are headed. Morton and the TeaPot Party are on the fast track. The “medical” marijuana folks are on a slower track, but they all end up at the same place—total legalization of marijuana. The states of Colorado and Washington legalized marijuana for “medical” purposes a few years ago. The drug got so out of control there that they finally threw in the towel and made it totally legal.

While Morton’s “Willie Nelson” law would be the most wide-open marijuana law in the country, at least his intentions are out in the open. Backers of other efforts to legalize marijuana in Arkansas seem to share Morton’s view, but veil their marijuana proposals behind a “medical” smoke screen of helping the sick and dying.

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Is Marijuana Medicine?

7 CommentsMarijuana

The following blog post is by Family Council staff member Deborah Beuerman.

With the legalization of recreational marijuana in Colorado, other states are rushing to enact their own marijuana laws. Most of them are pushing for legalizing “medicinal” marijuana. Several groups in Arkansas are trying to place marijuana proposals on the 2014 ballot.

What is the difference between “medical marijuana” and “recreational marijuana”? If medical marijuana helps sick people, is it compassionate to let them use it?

Marijuana is marijuana. There is no difference in the plant that is smoked for a “high” and that used as medicine. The marijuana plant, Cannabis sativa, is not medicine in our modern context, for several reasons.

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Colorado Violating Federal Law

Current Events, Marijuana

The State of Colorado is blatantly violating  federal law.

As you may have seen this week, Colorado has begun authorizing people to sell “retail” (or “recreational”) marijuana. They claim they are regulating, taxing, and selling it the same way as alcohol. But there’s a problem.

Marijuana is still 100% illegal under federal law.

States don’t have the luxury of legalizing something the federal government has declared illegal. If Colorado passed a law requiring public school teachers to pray in Jesus’ name at the beginning of every school day, the federal government would intervene to stop them, because the U.S. Supreme Court has said that is illegal; disagree with the government if you want, but that’s what they would do.

Federal laws ares supposed to be constitutionally-grounded statutes passed to govern all states; from a legal standpoint, they are part of what unifies the United States of America. In Colorado, however, enough people  disagree with the federal government’s laws against marijuana that they have simply opted to ignore those laws. That’s dangerous.

What if a state suddenly decided, for whatever reason, that laws against cruel and unusual punishment weren’t worth following? Or what if a state unilaterally decided federal laws governing pollution or labor and employment simply weren’t important? Our founding fathers were wise enough to give us multiple ways through which we could change federal laws that are disagreeable or unconstitutional. That’s part of what makes us a free people. Free people do not choose to ignore the laws of the land simply because they are inconvenient; that’s what tyrants do.

Some people claim the federal government doesn’t have the constitutional authority to outlaw marijuana. If that’s the case, then they should take that argument to Congress or to the courts to have the law adjusted. Some people say marijuana is harmless; that’s a myth that has long been debunked–but even if it were true, it would not excuse an entire state from following the law.

The only thing more troubling than Colorado’s decision to buck federal law is the federal government’s apathy over the issue. So far, the federal Justice Department is letting Colorado get away with violating the law. If the federal government can simply choose not to enforce a law Congress has passed, and if a state can blatantly violate it without repercussions, then our nation has crossed over into some very dangerous waters.

If states can violate this federal law, just how many others can they violate?

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