Mayors Urge the Federal Government to Ease Up on Medical Marijuana

Federal Government Needs to Ease Up On Medical Marijuana Usage

The federal government needs to ease up on its imposing of laws on medical marijuana usage and allows states and localities to handle the regulations themselves. The U.S. Conference of National Mayors is a group of mayors across the country that are urging President Obama to direct the Department of Justice and other federal agencies to back off on applying federal laws to medical marijuana. The mayors feel the federal agencies are overstepping their bounds and making it hard for them to enforce the laws of their cites and states.Voters Want Legal Medical Marijuana
Voters in cities and states across the country have gone to the polls and allowed for the passing of legislation and ballot referendums that allow for the regulation of medical marijuana at the state and local level. Many mayors and local politicians feel that keeping marijuana usage illegal has been a failure for their cities and prevented efficient crime fighting techniques. In addition, democracy calls for respecting the votes of the citizens.States Cannot Afford to Keep Law Enforcement Efforts on Medical Marijuana
Many lawmakers and politicians are feeling a budget crunch and realize that they may not have the police force necessary to crack down on illicit marijuana usage. More and more, state and local officials are asking the federal government to let them deal with medical marijuana on their own.

Good Reasons to Allow Medical Marijuana Usage
State and local lawmakers also argue that medical marijuana has become legal in their jurisdictions based upon science and the voters’ will. The argument also goes that every city and state that has permitted the use of medical marijuana does so in a different manner and that federal laws just overstep and contradict the state and local laws.

President Obama Needs to Keep His Campaign Promise
When President Obama was running for President, he promised that he would not enforce federal drug laws over the use of medical marijuana in the states. However, as President, Obama has enforced federal drug laws and the result has been criminalization of medical marijuana usage.

Photo credit: pasa47 / Foter.com / CC BY

 

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