THE RESPONSIBILITY OF STATES TO THEIR PEOPLE

When New Mexico passed their medical marijuana law that required the
state to supply patients with marijuana, that turned some heads --
surely this was an interesting end run around the approach of busting
medical marijuana dispensaries that the DEA uses in California. How
would the DEA bust a state?

The problem, unfortunately, is that folks figured out that the DEA
might just go after the individual state employees who are complying
with state law and, in the process, violating federal law.

So the state of New Mexico has decided not to comply with state law (
see http://tinyurl.com/yoj84u ) [thanks, Wayne] so as not to force
state employees to be put at risk. And to an extent, I can understand
the stated sentiment (although it certainly would be an interesting
court case).

What I can't help wondering, however, is how hard the state is
trying. Have they merely come up with an excuse to give up? Don't
they have a responsibility to continue to attempt to find a way to
make state law work?

And this got me thinking about a fascinating post by Alex at Drug Law
Blog: "Daily News on LAPD Involvement in Dispensary Raids" ( see
http://druglaw.typepad.com/drug_law_blog/2007/08/daily-news-on-l.html
). The question there is whether members of the LAPD are actually
helping the DEA bust dispensaries that are legal under state law, and
what that says about the LAPD. They claim to just be there to
maintain order, but what about their responsibility to the law?

I'm not saying that the LAPD should defy the DEA. No gunfights in the
street between state and federal cops just yet. Federal law
supersedes state law. But that doesn't mean that the LAPD needs to... assist.

As a Superior Court Judge recently noted: "It is up to the federal
government to enforce its laws. Indeed, the Tenth Amendment to the
United States Constitution prohibits the federal government from
impressing 'into its service -- and at no cost to itself -- the
police officers of the 50 States." ( see
http://blogs.salon.com/0002762/2007/07/10.html#a2349 )

So what should the LAPD do? If they really believed in their
responsibility to the people, the law, and the state, then they would
protect those all the way up to the point where federal law
specifically took over, and then merely step out of the way. I would
position police officers to protect marijuana dispensaries in the
state, with instructions to step aside for the DEA only if and when
the police and California attorney general were completely satisfied
with the legal paperwork spelling out the DEA's jurisdiction in that
particular raid and the specific provisions of federal law that
trumped state law (and the DEA might have to wait for an hour or two
while the proper state officials were brought in to inspect such documents).

Now that would be something to see. And the people of California
should demand that of their police departments.