It is legal to smoke pot and not even be sick. Well at least in just a few states. Yes, we have another legal addiction we can add to the possible miss use of . Add it to booze, cigarettes and prescription drugs. Isn’t that what elections are for? Sometimes when you go to vote it is not just for a candidate of your choice; many times you vote on social issues and this election was no different.

In Oregon, Washington and the Rocky Mountains State of Colorado, the social issue is the legalization of Marijuana and now after the vote it is legal. Part of this has to do with cash starved governments looking for any way to create revenue for their state. After all we are taxed on everything practically except the air we breathe. Shhhhh!

Mostly I think making the use of Marijuana legal is just a sign of the times. Most people have a tolerance for it. Older people grew up with it in the 70’s and 80’s and now young people can’t seem to get enough of it either. 17 states have legalized it whether it is used for medical purposes or for recreational use. The medical uses are for the treatment of Glaucoma, the effects of Chemo-therapy and chronic pain.

There still exist laws that consider Marijuana more dangerous than even Cocaine and Methamphetamine. If you need to get into a new business or to find where you can get legal Pot, the place to go is Colorado. It has already become a new big thriving business there. There you can find the most developed medical marijuana industry in America. Since when does the Federal government chose to ignore what states are approving?

You need to know the risks and the law before you pack up and start selling pot in Colorado. There is a Federal law still in existence called The Federal Control Substance Act which still lists Marijuana as a scheduled 1 drug. They consider it every much as dangerous as heroine without any medical benefit. In Colorado now you can grow it and sell it if you are licensed to people who have a card to buy it. All those people are violating Federal law.

The really strange thing is that there are already hundreds of dispensaries servicing as many as 100,000 people and every transaction that occurs is a Federal crime and everyone involved in from the growing the product to selling the product are involved in serious federal crimes. Even though the state of Colorado has passed a Constitutional Amendment allowing it, the Federal government has not changed it’s rule on the subject.

The Federal government sees it as a serious crime, they know that 16 other states and California, the District of Columbia all think pot is medicine but it is not. The Feds realize you want to legalize it but you really can’t. The Feds can’t make you states undo your statutes but they can come in and prosecute your citizens for violating Federal law; but they haven’t.

Since when does the Federal government look the other way from any crime? This is a crime that the states seem to welcome with open arms. Right now the Federal government doesn’t have the number of manpower to shut down the medical marijuana business in Colorado or prosecute all the sellers and patients. The voters have just proved that they don’t want to be prosecuted either. The Boulder Colorado District Attorney Stan Garnet says it is virtually impossible to get a jury that is impartial let alone to get a conviction.

They then deal with what prosecutors call jury nullification where the jury says they know what the law is but they are not going to follow it. The community in Colorado has made it very clear now that criminal enforcement of mara juiana is not something they want the Attorney General to spend any time on and it really is not an issue in that state.

The Justice Department in Washington, Deputy Attorney General, James Cole has told U.S. Attorney’s not to waste their time and resources prosecuting patients or care givers that are in clear compliance with state medical marijuana laws. The Federal focus is on keeping it away from children, out of the hands of organized crime and making sure that people aren’t using medical dispensary's as a pretext to do large scale inter-state drug dealing.

It sure sounds like the Federal government is tolerating the sale of pot. This shaky ground cannot last for long. Either people will start to be prosecuted or the salesmen of pot will just give up since banks will not give them accounts because they are in fear of being involved in money laundering. As usual, the states do what they want as the feds stand their ground just waiting to pounce.