MEDICAL MARIJUANA SITUATION NOT SO HAZY

In the ongoing pot wars between the voters (who approved medical
marijuana in 1999) and their hired help (the elected politicians who
continue to defy voters and throw up roadblock after roadblock in the
face of medical marijuana dispensaries), the same argument keeps
cropping up: The conflict between the voter-approved state law
legalizing medical use of marijuana and existing federal laws banning
it leave California's cities and counties stuck in the middle.

For those politicians who are mostly interested in providing the
appearance of abiding by voters' directives while actually thumbing
their noses at them, it's a great argument to trot out.

Unfortunately for said politicians, the law is settled on this point
- and not on their side.

And it's been settled law for more than a century and a
half.

In 1793, Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Law ---- which said that
any slave who escaped to a free state had to be returned to his or her
rightful "owner." Northern abolitionists were disgusted by this law,
and many northern state legislatures passed laws designed to counter
this and provide safe haven for escaped slaves seeking their freedom.

Things came to a head when a bounty hunter named Edward Prigg was
arrested for taking a black woman and her children from Pennsylvania
back to her purported "owners" in Maryland. Pennsylvania authorities
had Prigg arrested, and he was tried and convicted.

He filed a federal lawsuit (Prigg vs. Pennsylvania) seeking to have
his conviction overturned, arguing that state law cannot supersede
federal law. In 1842, the Supreme Court agreed ---- and overturned his
conviction. However, the decision by the court noted that while states
may not defy federal legislation or interfere with federal agents
enforcing U.S. law, nothing in the Constitution requires states to
enforce federal laws.

That principle stands today, and we see it in use daily with cities
across the Southwest refusing to allow their police officers to
enforce federal immigration law.

So, too, do the people of California have the right to prohibit any
state or local officials from enforcing federal laws regarding marijuana.

And so the city of San Marcos is not "caught in the middle" between
federal and state laws regarding medical marijuana. Its mandate is
clear: Obey the voters and provide reasonable guidelines for the
establishment and operation of medical marijuana dispensaries within
city limits.

And if the DEA comes and busts them?

I guess we'll just have to accept the fact that our politicians will
be cheering that.