Global Ganja Report

Former administrators of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) John Bartels, Peter Bensinger, Francis Mullen, Jack Lawn, Robert Bonner, Tom Constantine, Donnie Marshall, Asa Hutchinson and Karen Tandy threw down the guantlet over Proposition 19, writing an editorial which doubled as an open letter urging Attorney General Eric Holder to bring suit against California —just as the Obama administration sued Arizona when that state passed its controversial immigration law.

[I]f passed by voters in November, Proposition 19—also known as the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010—will be in direct conflict with the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), a federal law that makes the production and sale of marijuana a federal crime. In our federal system, a state law that conflicts with a federal law violates the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution and is void.

The CSA itself clearly states that federal law overrides state law when there is a positive conflict between the two jurisdictions. Thus there is very little likelihood that anyone is going to be paying sales taxes to the state of California or its municipalities when to do so would be admitting the commission of a federal felony.

"I have no doubt that the feds will file suit if Proposition 19 passes," said Dale Gieringer, director of California NORML. (Sacramento Bee, Oct. 8)

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