Is marijuana for recreational use illegal by federal law or state law?
I’ve heard about this ballot initiative for the November elections in California to legalize marijuana for recreational use. My father, who is a lawyer, told me that it would still be illegal by federal law. I don’t know too much about the legal matters of this, but wouldn’t it be against federal law to pass a ballot initiative that goes against federal law? Is there some way that a state can bypass these kinds of laws? I’m really confused here.
It is illegal by federal law and would still be illegal by federal law. No the state cant bypass it. even medical marijuana is still illegal although the Obama administration has chose not to prosecute that.
Marijuana is illegal under both state and federal law. If the ballot measure passes, it will just eliminate any state law prohibiting possession of small amounts – it will not affect federal law in any way. The state will not be bypassing any laws.
you have every reason to be confused about this issue. it really doesn’t make any sense.
basically what is going to happen if it becomes legalized in a state is that the cops are going to stop enforcing the federal law, but the DEA can definitely still make busts if they really wanted to. i’m not entirely sure if the state/city police are allowed to make busts or not though.
marijuana is already basically legal in some counties in california(along with the city of Denver in Colorado), but the DEA could bust the shops any time they want. but they don’t because they know that if they did those local economies would crash since the legalization of marijuana revived their economies.
so i’m not entirely sure on the technicalities but basically the federal government would respect that state’s decision although they don’t have to.
A state can make whatever laws it wants. If they are contrary to federal law, federal law prevails should the federal govrrnment want to make an issue out of it. Any state can legalize pot. It doesn’t make it legal under federal law.
there are federal and state laws.
state laws can be looked at here
http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=4516
Federal law here
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=2638
It makes it messy
it could be legalized in a state and the state government would not prosecute you but the feds still could.
Federal law supercedes state law. Technically California cannot pass the law and may lose federal funding from the federal government, but it isn’t likely to be challenged on the federal level. Obama has told the DEA not to go after the marijuana growers in California, but that was for medicinal use. It should be interesting to see how it pans out if the recreational use passes.