"CONSERVATIVES" FOR FEDERALISM

For anyone who's confused, and thinks the United States has a
conservative-leaning Supreme Court, Monday's 8-0 decision on medical
marijuana laws ought to clear things up.

The nation's highest court struck down the "medical necessity" defense
that the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative had asserted to justify
its distribution network under California's medical marijuana law.
Colorado Attorney General Ken Salazer issued a warning, in response to
the ruling, that said anyone who grows or distributes marijuana in
Colorado for medical purposes is "in real peril of federal drug
enforcement," regardless of the fact Coloradoans voted last fall to
legalize medical marijuana.

Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that "marijuana has no currently
accepted medical use at all." Now that's clearly debatable. Getting
two doctors to agree on anything at any given time is nearly
impossible. One says stitch the owchie, the other says bandage it. One
says attack the cancer with chemo, the other says cut it out today.
Some medical doctors believe bee sting therapy cures a variety of
ills, while others think that's nonsense.

Clearly, however, patients and doctors alike know that marijuana is at
the very least an excellent pain reliever that's less harmful than the
legal narcotic alternatives.

And in the wake of this bizarre decision, something else is crystal
clear. This isn't a conservative court at all. Conservatives believe
in states' rights, and in the power of the people to govern their own
turf. This court loves federal power, which makes the justices
elitist, statist, modern-day liberal swine.