Birleşik Devletler yasaklama of kenevir is unconstitutional. The US House of Representatives banned cannabis in June 1937 based on the belief that “marihuana” makes black people and Hispanics into drug-fiend rapists. Before the vote, Republican minority leader, Bertrand Snell of New York, said, “I do not know anything about the bill.” Democratic majority leader, Sam Rayburn of Texas, was equally clueless. “I believe it is a narcotic of some kind.”

Or, as Nancy Pelosi once said about the Affordable Care Act, “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what’s in it.”

On this 4th of July, it’s time to examine just how unconstitutional the US yasaklama of cannabis really is.

How US Prohibition of Cannabis Happened

Technically, the US prohibition of cannabis did not occur in 1937. It was taxed so heavily that nearly every kenevir business went bankrupt. By 1970, when the US government incorporated the official ban into the Controlled Substances Act, there wasn’t any viable hemp industry in the US.

Later, under similar racial prejudices, Richard Nixon launched the drug war. One of his henchmen who served time in prison once said: 

“1968'deki Nixon kampanyası ve ondan sonraki Nixon Beyaz Saray'ın iki düşmanı vardı: savaş karşıtı sol ve siyah insanlar. Ne dediğimi anlıyor musun? Savaşa karşı olmayı ya da siyaha karşı olmayı yasadışı yapamayacağımızı biliyorduk, ancak halkı hippileri esrarla ve siyahları eroinle ilişkilendirip ikisini de ağır bir şekilde suçlayarak bu toplulukları bozabiliriz. Liderlerini tutuklayabilir, evlerine baskın yapabilir, toplantılarını bölebilir ve her gece akşam haberlerinde onları karalayabiliriz. Uyuşturucular hakkında yalan söylediğimizi biliyor muyduk? Elbette yaptık. "

How did this happen? US prohibition of cannabis is obviously unconstitutional. The 10th amendment gives that authority to the States. That’s why the Supreme Court recently overturned Roe v Wade. Çamurda yürümek. It has nothing to do with “conservative judges” wanting to control a woman’s body. It’s a constitutional issue over the correct division of powers.

Abortion, like cannabis, is an issue for individual States, not the federal government.

The Commerce Clause

But the US constitution has a clause called the Commerce Clause.

The clause is short but has significantly impacted the history of the United States. And not in a good way. Courts have interpreted the Commerce Clause to give the US federal government complete control of the country. The Commerce Clause is why federalism hasn’t worked in the United States.

It reads: [The Congress shall have Power] Ticareti yabancı uluslarla, çeşitli Devletler arasında ve Kızılderili kabileleriyle düzenlemek;

Many point to the 1942 Wickard v. Filburn case as the beginning of the end. The Supreme Court ruled that punishing an Ohio farmer for exceeding a government-imposed wheat quota was justified. Even though the wheat never left his farm, let alone the state. 

How the Commerce Clause makes US Prohibition of Cannabis Possible

In 2005, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the federal government in the case of Gonzales v. Raich. This ruling stated that the Commerce Clause allows the federal government to regulate home-grown tıbbi esrar. aksine Wickard, which focused on production, this interpretation means that even mülk of cannabis is a national concern. 

Justice Clarence Thomas dissented. In his argument, he said, “If Congress can regulate this under the Commerce Clause, then it can regulate virtually anything—and the Federal Government is no longer one of limited and enumerated powers.”

The US prohibition of cannabis is unconstitutional. Full stop.

US Prohibition of Cannabis: How Will it End?

John Stuart Mill once said,

“The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilised community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant….Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.”

This quote encapsulates the spirit behind the American Revolution. Before, as is still the case in Canada, the only sovereign was the Crown, represented today by Queen Elizabeth and then by King George. 

After the Revolution, Americans were sovereign individuals. They ruled themselves. Power flowed from the people up to the States and then onto the Federal Government.

This principle has been lost sometime in the last 246 years.

But today, on the 4th of July, we see it reviving across the United States. And the esrar endüstrisi yol gösteriyor.

Starting in 1996 when California defied federal laws and legalized medical cannabis. Then, later, in 2012, when Colorado and Washington State famously became the first states to legalize eğlence cannabis. Not only was this a giant middle finger to the drug war, but to the federal government’s authority as well.

The spirit of 1776 is alive now more than ever. It’s common to think America is ripping apart at the seams. That the country is fundamentally divided and a civil war is imminent. But just because you divorce your spouse doesn’t mean you need to get violent with them. 

The US federal government has egregiously overstepped its constitutional limits. Return to a small, limited federal government, allowing States to govern as their populations see fit. 

And if that means a prohibition of cannabis and abortions in Mississippi or Oklahoma, then so be it. So long as they allow their residents to come and go freely, then the principles of classical liberalism live on for another generation.