Editor: This is a bad idea but a moot point anyway: “Fetterman joins Dem senators in new push to federally legalize weed” (July 24). Marijuana is still on the federal government’s list of controlled (dangerous) substances. But, as the article reports, 24 states and D.C. have legalized marijuana for recreational use. If the federal government wanted to crack down on those 24 states and D.C. it could. It’s a complicated system of federal powers versus state powers in the matter. The federal path to override states’ recreational marijuana laws involves the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution, Federal Preemption and the Tenth Amendment. And that just skims the surface of accomplishing the task of overriding states’ marijuana laws. There is an elephant in the room that no one will talk about in these recreational marijuana debates. The federal government would be hypocritical to three of its own entities that have nothing good to say about recreational pot and instead list serious medical issues and psychological disorders that result from recreational pot.
Look on the websites of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institutes for Health. Listings include: Marijuana use leads to depression, anxiety and psychotic episodes. Marijuana affects timing and coordination, altered sense of time, difficulty in problem solving. The brain is not fully developed until age 25. Recreational marijuana can impair brain development if used enough before age 25.
Politicians, where is your conscience?
Daniel Pryor, Belvidere, New Jersey