By Gino Riccardi
The United States Postal Service recently sent a memo to
its headquarters in Portland, Oregon, warning against delivering
marijuana-related advertising under penalty of law, according to the
Chinook Observer.
This comes as some surprise because Oregon state law permits the use, sale and carry of medical and recreational marijuana.
Last Monday, the Chinook observer received a memorandum
from the postmaster in Long Beach, Oregon that included that line, “If a
mailpiece contains an advertisement for marijuana, that piece is
unmailable,” Matt Winters of the Chinook observer said.
States have been steadily legalizing the sale and use of
marijuana since 1998 while the federal government has remained stagnant
on the issue. Consequently, the two legislative bodies are at an
impasse.
By now, one would think that the federal government would
have left the decision up to the individual states, the same way it did
with alcohol prohibition. To some extent, it has, but it’s kind of a
secret.
“Tucked deep inside the 1,603-page federal spending
measure is a provision that effectively ends the federal government’s
prohibition on medical marijuana and signals a major shift in drug
policy,” said the Los Angeles Times.
The measure, called the Rohrabacher-Farr Amendment, is a
landmark piece of legislation for advocates of decriminalization. It
“basically prevented the DEA from going after medical marijuana
dispensaries, provided that such dispensaries were acting in compliance
with state law,” according to the Washington Post.
With a rank-and-file Republican like Dana Rohrabacher
championing the legislation, it’s evident that even conservatives are
beginning to agree that smoking, or otherwise ingesting, marijuana is a
victimless crime whose harmful effects far outweigh any benefits that
criminalization might bring about.
The next battle is for the complete federal decriminalization of marijuana.
It’s the most socially acceptable taboo since consensual
sodomy, and the only opposition seems to be coming from the USPS and the
Drug Enforcement Administration, who attempted and failed to use the
Department of Justice to misinterpret the amendment to the letter and
not the spirit of the law.
The only two explanations for the DEA’s rebuke of the bill
could be that it weighs on their collective moral conscience or, more
likely, enforcing the soon-to-be antiquated law brings in a ton of money
for law enforcement.
Luckily for the common sense-loving general public, states
have much more to gain from decriminalization. For one thing, state
budgets would feel immediate relief with regard to incarceration costs.
“Marijuana arrests have increased between 2001 and 2010
and now account for over half (52 percent) of all drug arrests in the
United States,” according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
Secondly, states can look forward to new streams of income
with the legalization, regulation and taxation of a new commodity.
“Colorado collected almost $70 million in marijuana taxes during that
time, nearly double the $42 million collected from alcohol taxes,”
according to Time Magazine.
There’s no telling why the USPS decided to draw a line in
the sand for Oregon-based newspapers, but the state representatives are
taking measures to ensure that common sense can prevail.
Oregon Senator Ron Wyden and representative Earl Blumenaur
both support the state marijuana laws and have gone on record to say
they are in the process of figuring out why the statement was issued,
according to Oregon Live. But they will fight to uphold the laws of
their state
The fed will likely change its stance on recreational use
in due time. As Winston Churchill once said, “Americans can always be
counted on to do the right thing … after they have exhausted all other
possibilities.”
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