Showing posts with label Laws. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Laws. Show all posts

Monday, August 10, 2015

CA Congressmen Urge Federal Reform of Marijuana Laws

marijuana
The federal government’s understanding of its own marijuana regulations are willfully “tortuous” and “an obvious stretch,” warned a bipartisan duo of California Congressmen in a sternly-worded letter to the Department of Justice.

An abuse of power

In the letter, obtained by the Huffington Post, Reps. Sam Farr, D-Calif., and Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., requested that DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz open an internal investigation into the department’s continued prosecutions of marijuana dispensaries, against what they said was the clear letter and intent of the law.
In its Appropriations Act for 2015, Congress had passed a provision introduced by Rohrabacher and Farr designed and intended to ward off federal interference with marijuana-related businesses operating legally under state law.
“We, the authors of the language, and our many colleagues — including those who opposed the amendment — laid on the record repeatedly that the intent and the language of the provision was to stop DOJ from interacting with anyone legitimately doing business in medical marijuana in accordance with state law,” wrote the Congressmen.
Signed into law by president Obama, the amendment received a second vote of approval from Representatives this summer. “As the marijuana provision is part of an annual funding bill that will expire,” noted the Huffington Post, “the lawmakers introduced an identical version again in June, which was reauthorized by the House of Representatives.”
In April, Farr and Rohrabacher had also demanded that Attorney General Eric Holder “stop prosecution of state-authorized medical marijuana dispensaries” in observance of the same provision, as the Orange County Register reported.

Federal legalese

But the Department of Justice chose to interpret the law in the most hostile manner possible, the lawmakers suggested, citing an April statement by DOJ spokesman Patrick Rodenbush. As the Los Angeles Times reported, Rodenbush said Rohrabacher-Farr, as the appropriations amendment was known, didn’t apply to prosecutions directed at persons or groups:
Rather, he said, it stops the department from “impeding the ability of states to carry out their medical marijuana laws,” contrary to some claims from people being prosecuted that the amendment blocks such prosecutions.
As the Times then observed, this “narrow interpretation of the law” had particularly strong implications in the San Francisco Bay Area, “where the Justice Department has initiated forfeiture proceedings against three medical marijuana dispensaries it considers to be in violation of federal law.”
Outgoing U.S. Attorney for Northern California Melinda Haag had become notorious among pro-pot advocates and business people, joining “the three other regional U.S. attorneys in California in cracking down on medical marijuana dispensaries perceived to be large-scale commercial enterprises,” as Pleasanton Weekly recounted. One dispensary facing the brunt of Haag’s crusade, Harborside Health Center, met the news of her departure with what executive director Steve DeAngelo called “great relief and great satisfaction.”
“In Ms. Haag’s parting statement she said she felt her office had ‘accomplished most of our goals’ during her tenure,” DeAngelo said in a statement. “The one goal she most assuredly has not accomplished is closing down Harborside Health Center. We hope her successor will have a more finely tuned understanding of compassion and justice than Ms. Haag has displayed, and allow Harborside to focus on serving our patients instead of battling a court case that should never have been started.”

Conflicting actions

Although the Department of Justice could opt to ignore the mismatch between its conduct and the law, the law itself would hold them to account for doing so. At stake is the applicability of the Anti-Deficiency Act, as Farr and Rohrabacher argued; as Reason indicated, that law “makes it a crime to use federal money for purposes that are not approved by Congress.”

Thursday, November 21, 2013

There ought not be a law: Kooky codes take aim at oysters, costumes and slingshots

Can you wear a costume outdoors, without a government permit?
Not if you live in Walnut, Calif., or at least a half-dozen other towns in America – and they have some other eyebrow-raising laws as well.
Other laws in the affluent Los Angeles suburb include a ban on men cross-dressing without a government permit, one that forbids possession of a horse-racing tip sheet and yet another banning slingshots. City officials admit those laws, which were added in 1959 when the city was incorporated, are outdated.
“These obsolete laws are not harmless."
- Harvey Silverglate, author of "Three Felonies a Day"
“They’re a little antiquated -- that’s what it is,” city spokeswoman Fabiola Huerta told FoxNews.com. “At times, some ordinances are overlooked and are not deleted from the Municipal Code once they are outdated. These ordinances have not been enforced and will be subject to a code cleanup in the upcoming year.”
But not all of the rules will necessarily be repealed. Some sound silly, but may have a reasonable justification.

Friday, September 21, 2012

Dem Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee Says She Would Break The Law To Vote Against GOP Bill To Stop Obama From Gutting Welfare Work Requirements…


On Thursday, Texas Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee was so worked up about Republican legislation to stop the Obama administration’s welfare work requirement waivers that she exited an anti-bullying event early, joking that she would be breaking traffic laws to cast her vote in opposition.
“Please forgive me if I run out for a vote and a debate. I am going to run back. We’ll probably break all traffic rules, but I want you to be engaged. And I don’t want anybody hear about what traffic rule I’ve broken, but I want all of you to be engaged,” she urged the gathering of anti-bullying advocates and school children.
Lee left quickly in the middle of the event she headlined — “Bullying – Sticks & Stones: Changing the Face of the 21st Century” — to oppose to the Republican measure.
“My friends are now on the Hill. I’m going to have to run back, because the waiver that was given to give people flexibility on TANF [Temporary Assistance for Needy Families ] is now — that’s what we call giving flexibility in the national, making a statement of cooperation and working with government, state governments, meaning flexibility in the welfare concept, which I am so glad [the Obama administration] did,” she told the gathering. “So now my friends on the other side of the aisle, representing the 53 versus 47 percent — a little humor here, I’m going to get to the point, but in any event — they are trying to repeal the flexibility that our government so rightly so has given and sitting us in hearings saying that we over regulate.”
Despite a reputation for bullying her own staff, Lee has been championing anti-bullying legislation and pushing for more efforts to end bullying.
“Bullying prevention and intervention is not only about caring for our young people, it is about caring for our future, so bullying brings about bully-cide, suicide, cyber-bullying, and it does not end with our children on the playground,” she said. “It exists on college campuses, workplaces, online and even elderly care facilities.”
The Daily Caller revealed last year that in conjunction with her hot temper with staff, she has a reputation for ignoring traffic laws, with former drivers saying she would demand they run red lights and take highway shoulders to expedite travel times — something that has resulted in at least one accident.

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