Saturday, April 22, 2017

Mellowing Marijuana?

Whatever happened to the law of the land? The time when the laws of this country applied to all states in the country? Every state and the Federal Government has different laws with regulation, banking and taxation when it comes to catnip for people. Marijuana use and holding of even a small amount used to result in serious long term jail time everywhere but now more and more states are accepting the use, sale and medicinal needs of the stuff. The problem is that the issue is still clashing with tax laws and the Federal Government still declaring pot as an illegal substance. Can we have it or not lawmakers?
Is Trump going to give us more definitive answers? In this past election 8 more states declared pot legal meanwhile we elected a President who doesn’t want to legalize the use, growth or possession of the stuff. What is a Toaker supposed to do? Right now 40 states have some sort of Marijuana laws on their books involving recreational use. This has become a big issue now involving lots of people everywhere. In 1962 only 12% of people favored legalization. Today 60% favor being able to have the stuff. When did we gradually decide that pot was ok to have? When will the Federal government decide that pot is ok too? Right now if you have legalized pot in your state you can still be arrested if the feds decide to bring you in! Do the state laws matter at all? Someone figure this mess out!
Why is Marijuana so heavily regulated anyway? At the turn of the century pot was in one hand and a drink was in the other in many clubs but then Nixon decided to have his war on drugs since the hippies of the era was enjoying pot so much. Nixon signed the Controlled Substance Act in 1970 and it is still in force. Pot is classified as a Schedule 1 drug that is the highest classification drug alongside Heroin according to the Federal Government. So, who would legalize something that dangerous? Everyone needs to define how dangerous Marijuana is and get on the same page before they drag people off to jail sentences.  The Federal Government considers Cocaine and Methamphetamine less dangerous than pot. Really?  The Medical Associations need to intervene and educate people on this issue.
That Federal law is clashing with individual State laws. Now legal Marijuana businesses have trouble getting bank accounts because banks do not want to violate the Federal law whether they enforce it or not. Obama never enforced the law. What will Trump do? He seems to want to do everything opposite Obama did. Trump is too busy  playing golf to work on this issue. Right now if a bank took a legalized pot business money in an account it would be considered money laundering. No bank wants to break the law. So the businesses have to even pay their taxes in cash! More crazy than that is the fact that under Federal Tax Laws you have to declare income even if the source of that income is illegal. The law even has provisions like if you receive a bribe, include it in your income. If you steal property you must report its fair market value. Do they really expect us to fill out forms admitting guilt of crimes? Should we put the handcuffs on ourselves? What a Mess!
So, pot businesses have all the tax liabilities that other businesses have but they don’t get the benefits. They can’t declare normal tax deductions like certain expenses so now they are paying double the tax in cash! People with prescriptions for medical marijuana could be in trouble with federal law too. The American Disabilities Act can’t help sick people with state legal doctor’s prescriptions because the Disabilities Act is a federal law too! Even state laws are clashing. They legalize pot but they don’t change their strict crime laws involving pot. A family had a pot plant in their home in a legalized state and they used the pot to treat the epileptic seizures of their son. The police arrested the parents on grounds that the plant would entice armed robberies in the neighborhood. They also took their child away from their care on grounds that they were putting their child in danger of crimes. Under that logic if I have jewelry in my home I am encouraging theft?
Scientists can’t even conduct studies on the effects of pot for illnesses because they have to wait years to  go through the red tape of three Federal Agencies before they can get approval for a study. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the National Institute of Health is among the agencies. A doctor had to wait six years just to study the effect of pot on PTSD Post Traumatic Stress Disorder that the Federal government gave to its citizens from participating in the nonsense wars for the past 15 years. Veterans are breaking Federal Law to take pot that they all agree helps them with their problems but at the same time they were willing to give up their lives for this country and they do not want to break Federal laws. The veterans have war nightmares and now reality of life nightmares.  Under Federal Law it is illegal for a doctor to write a prescription for medical Marijuana. Grrrrr! Veterans can not get prescriptions for medical Marijuana from the Veterans Association because it is a Federal Agency.   
In Kentucky they legalized the use of pot but neglected to approve the legal distribution of pot, so where are they allowed to even purchase pot? It is a federal crime to mail, fly or drive pot from state to state. What good is legalizing stuff if there isn’t even a way to legally get the stuff? We need to at least work to overturn Nixon’s outdated Controlled Substance Act, correct prison terms and get the state laws to all agree on the same forms of legalization. Now, what can I smoke to calm down with and feel like giggling again?



No comments:

Post a Comment