Medical Marijuana and the 2nd amendment
Great post over at Radical Russ’s blog about medical marijuana’s effect on our… Right to bear arms??? Click the link for details!
For over thirty years, the federal War on (Some American Citizens using Non-Alcoholic, Non-Pharmaceutical, Tobacco-Free) Drugs has decimated our civil liberties. There is hardly a single right in the Bill of Rights that hasn’t been affected.
The right to free speech, guaranteed in the First Amendment, has been curbed when the government refuses to take anti-drug war advertising on public transit. The right to free exercise of religion — at least for Rastafarians, Coptic Christians, and Native Americans — has been curbed when those religions aren’t allowed to acquire their religious sacraments (marijuana, peyote, mescal). The right to peaceably assemble is curbed when hemp fests and protests are shut down by the cops.
Out Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure have been most abused during this Drug War. Drug dogs can be brought to search your car, even if there is no reasonable suspicion of a drug crime. Current decisions (Caballes) even open up the possibility of door-to-door, parking lot, or random public drug dog searches.
Our Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination are abused every time we are forced to provide urine or blood or hair for drug testing. Our private property is taken without just compensation through the scourge of civil asset forfeiture.
Our Sixth Amendment rights to a speedy and fair trial are violated every time a state medical marijuana patient or grower is prohibited from bringing up their medical necessity and adherance to state law in a trial.
Our Eighth Amendment rights to be free from excessive fines or cruel and unusual punishment (it could be argued) are violated when simple gardeners suffer massive fines or seriously ill patients suffer imprisonment without their life-saving medicine (see case of Steve Kubby)
Our Ninth Amendment rights, which affirms that just because the Constitution doesn’t list a right doesn’t mean the people don’t have a right, were violated when the Federal Government took upon itself the right to regulate controlled substances. (I challenge you to find anything in the Constitution granting the government the right to control what we put in our bodies.)
Our Tenth Amendment rights of state sovereignty are violated every time the federal government harasses state patients who are legally protected under state medical marijuana laws.
But one of our most cherished rights is one we don’t often think of as being subverted by our Drug War. That is our Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.
January 17th, 2006 at 12:49 am
When I consider all of the rights we dont have,it is very clear that we are not living in a free country.At 18 your old enough to die for your country but you cant buy booz.You cant smoke a joint but you can kill yourself with doctor prescribed medication and cigerretts.I feel that we should be free to do what we want too with our own bodys without the fear of going to jail or loosing our jobs.How can we unite to take control of our own libertys.