The growth, possession, use or sale of marijuana in the United States is a violation of federal law. There are no exceptions, and I could find no court cases or, as the legals say, “precedent” where any judge has decided this law somehow was not clear or an unusual or imprudent violation of citizens’ rights.
If this were still the America where clear violations of our nation’s laws were adjudicated, the essay could end here. Instead, by some sponsoring open defiance of a law and the refusal of government chiefs to take action, the fortunes that were lost and lives ended to guarantee us a nation which is governed only by laws, not by man, regretfully seems almost a cartoon.
Breaking drug laws is not the same as easing 10 miles over the limit or an 18-year-old buying alcohol. At least violators of these laws, when caught, face a court. The speeder’s defense of being in a hurry or drinker’s explanation that he was really thirsty would not excuse them from facing the law and its judgment.
On any square foot of the United States, involvement in marijuana is a crime, a felony. Within these clearly explained rules, there are no footnotes where enforcement of these laws is denied or exceptions made.
Wait. Isn’t there permission in the law legalizing use of this powerful drug to make the sick feel better? No.
The most logical legal standard to find exceptions of federal laws against trafficking in cannabis is to check its drug counterpart and make a comparison of laws. In 75 years, with Congresses of many thoughts and mores, there is no footnote or annotation, for example, that the drinking of wine by a child for his stomach’s sake is OK. Even the sick must wait until he or she is 21 to discover any medicinal value of alcohol.
As a publisher of books, I have the pleasure of meeting those from many trades and professions. In recent years, I have asked of those whose livelihood is derived from their knowledge of the human body if God had somehow changed his recipe to create us.
After all, we have discovered males and females who they say they received the wrong body parts. So could any modern-day fetal development engineered by our Maker bring a propensity to develop an illness only marijuana could aid?
To those who want to break drug laws with unjustified excuses, why not spend that time you are coddling the media by redressing Congress for changes? I suggest you do this soon, as the recent rash of sicknesses that can be abated only by cannabis use may rapidly advance to fatalities, and there will be no one left to light the fire.
Jerry Luquire is president of the Georgia Christian Coalition.
