Pubdate: Fri, 10 Jul 2015
Source: Argus Observer (OR)
Copyright: 2015 Ontario Argus Observer
Contact:  http://www.argusobserver.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4163
Author: Craig Carter
Note: Craig Carter is an Ontario resident

Random Acts of Writing

PUMPED FOR POT? BEWARE THE FEDS

Hi-ho-the-Derry-O! (With very special emphasis on "high.") Marijuana 
is now officially legal in Oregon. However, before you Oregonians who 
are so excited by this think the rest of time will be filled with 
late night visits to a 24-hour fast-food place followed by a "Robot 
Chicken" marathon on Cartoon Network, there are some things you might 
not have considered.

For instance, while the state of Oregon is cool with pot, your 
employer probably isn't. In fact, if you've been hired by any company 
over the past 25 to 30 years, chances are at some point (most likely 
on your job application) you've signed an agreement that you'll 
submit to random drug tests as a condition of your employment. 
Meaning your employer is probably keenly aware you're in a state 
where pot is now legal, and as such, he or she will most likely 
enforce that drug test condition, and should you fail, you're out of a job.

Also, should you try to sue your employer for what you think is 
unfairly firing you for doing something that's perfectly legal, you 
should know there have already been a number of similar lawsuits in 
Washington and Colorado, where the courts have let it be known 
they're not going to side with you. (State and federal courts also 
will not side with you should your landlord evict you because he or 
she doesn't want his or her carpets and drapes to smell like the 
inside of a VW van headed to the Grateful Dead's final concert.)

And speaking of folks who aren't cool with Oregon's new marijuana 
laws, I direct your attention to that state across the bridge over 
there. Let's say you buy some legal pot in Oregon and decide to 
schlep it across the state line. Should you get stopped by an Idaho 
State trooper, he or she isn't really going to care that you legally 
bought that plastic bag full of Oregon cannabis goodness in Oregon. 
He or she is only going to be concerned that it's not legal where you 
are now. And it's important for you to remember your legal Oregon 
cannabis goodness also isn't going to be welcomed by law enforcement 
in the 46 other states that don't share Oregon's cool-with-weed attitude.

Most ominous, though, is that horribly flexible, 
not-prone-to-over-reaction-at-all entity known as the federal 
government. The current U.S. Justice Department is on record in 
opposition to Oregon, Colorado, Washington state, Washington, D.C., 
and Alaska legalizing pot, but following through on this opposition 
isn't high (no pun intended) on their list of priorities.

However, the Justice Department is going to be changing hands very 
soon, and should those hands be those of a conservative Republican 
attorney general, I think it's fair to say they most certainly will 
not be above using high old Oregonian you as their example when they 
try to get the federal appeals courts to rule federal marijuana law 
supersedes any and all state laws. Which is my smart aleck way of 
telling you that while state officials are precluded by state law 
from hauling you off to country or state jail for getting high or 
possessing marijuana, getting hauled off to federal prison is another 
matter entirely. And goodness knows that's so much better, right?

The long and short being it's not unrealistic to envision a time when 
the U.S. Justice Department will use all the ponderous judicial 
resources available to them to tie the legal marijuana issue up in 
court for however long the president in charge of that Justice 
Department is in office. (If not longer.)

Don't get me wrong. Being the live and let live type of crabby old 
geezer I am, there's absolutely no way I could care any less if 
marijuana is legal or not. Either way, I'll remain crabby and old, 
and I won't partake, because as they so eloquently pointed out on 
"South Park": "There's a time and place for everything, and that time 
is college." (If you don't get the hint, I ain't gonna explain.)

I'm merely saying amid all the hoopla and excitement from proponents, 
and the predictions of gloom and doom from the opponents, this issue 
is far from laid to rest. I just can't help but think like gay 
marriage opponents before them, marijuana legalization proponents are 
going to be shocked at how fast federal courts will once again 
emphatically send the message that in the battle between what state 
voters might want and what the federal courts view as legal or 
Constitutional, the federal courts will definitely win.

Which means I have a gut feeling all that excitement we now see over 
marijuana legalization is about to meet judicial reality with a resounding thud.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom