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Spicer justifies this with the well-worn claim often made by Conservatives that "There is still a federal law that we need to abide by ... when it comes to recreational marijuana and other drugs of that nature."
At the core of this statement is the same hypocrisy that infects the entire right wing on the Drug War issue.
Conservatives like to talk a good game about states's rights and local control when it comes to issues like gun laws and Obamacare, but federalism and the Constitution go right out the window on the drug issue.
This has long been obvious, and was solidified in federal court when Trump's nominee to head the EPA, Scott Pruitt, sued Colorado in federal court when he was attorney general of Oklahoma. Pruitt and the GOP attorney general from Nebraska both attempted to get the federal court to render Colorado's drug laws null and void — which would have essentially destroyed what's left of federalism and states's rights down to its foundations. Pruitt, however, was making this same argument at the very same time he was arguing that the states had the right to override Obamacare mandates.
But the hypocrisy does not stop there. Conservatives love to talk about following the "original intent" of the US Constitution and demanding the federal government do nothing that is not authorized by the Constitution. That, of course, is then conveniently forgotten on the drug issue.
Although Sean Spicer certainly won't admit it, the "federal law we need to abide by" is not some federal statute passed by Congress about drugs. The law we need to abide by is found in the US Constitution — specifically the Tenth Amendment — where it clearly states that "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
So does the Constitution delegate to the United States government the power to regulate what sort of plants people eat, smoke, or grow? Here's a hint: No, it doesn't.
This refrain of Drug Warriors that those who don't like the Drug War need to "change the law" before they can complain requires a willful ignorance of the law contained in the US Constitution itself.
Indeed, in more honest times, everyone knew the Constitution did not allow federal control of such matters which is why most everyone accepted that a Constitutional amendment was necessary to authorize federal prohibition of alcohol. It was only later that politicians realized they could just forget about all that Constitution stuff and pass federal statutes banning various substances at will.
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