WE SHOULD USE COMMON SENSE IN REGULATING POT

Editor:

Editor: Marijuana is not the root of evil.

Nor is marijuana the telltale solution to our state's budget crisis.

Marijuana is simply a drug that is illegal under the federal law of
the United States of America.

The Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution states to us
that all constitutionally enacted federal legislation and federal
executive decisions stand as the supreme law of the land alongside
the Constitution, treaties, and other federal legal arrangements.

Since the federal government has spoken in a constitutional manner
against this drug, the illegality of this drug is considered the
supreme law of the land, the illegality of this drug applies to the
entirety of the United States, and no law can supersede this drug's
legal status except federal law.

I do not understand the quagmire that has become California law with
respect to marijuana.

I do not understand how a state can find the authority to supersede
the authority of the Supremacy Clause of the United States
Constitution and enact legislation partially legalizing an illegal substance.

I do understand that, for the time being, medical marijuana is a fact
with which we all must live. I must defer and acknowledge that those
using medical marijuana possess some right to the substance.
Although, I am skeptical over the constitutionality of that right,
and that such right should not be infringed.

That being said, this town must use common sense and realize that, so
long as we do not infringe on the statutory rights of medical
marijuana users, we can regulate this illegal substance.

It is legally irrelevant whether or not the ills of marijuana are the
result of its current status as a product on the black market.

It is legally irrelevant to ask the question of the drug's effects on
our budget if it were legalized and taxed. It is legally relevant to
regulate an illegal substance and to regulate such substance in a way
that keeps its effects away from our schools and our children.

There was nothing in the proposed legislation that limited what
rights medical marijuana users have.

The legislation simply regulated those areas most sensitive to our
community. This town is ludicrously debating the right to use an
illegal drug above the right to protect the education and well being
of our children. California needs to snap out of this irrational
logic that it is effectively above the United States of America,
needs to stop buying into this belief that a drug is going to save
the state from its ills, and needs to start refocusing on the things
that should truly matter to California: the protection and education
of its children and the foundation of its children's future.

I recommend the Board of Supervisors formulate an ad hoc committee
and reconsider this ordinance not from the standpoint of pot smokers,
but from the standpoint of the children of our community who
currently find their schools placed within spitting distance of
marijuana gardens.

Rob Taylor, Red Bluff