Despite 70% of Nebraskans voting to demand their rights to use cannabis as medicine (five ounces of flower is as of the time of this blog article legal for Nebraskans to possess and even sell to each other) biased officials in Nebraska’s top law enforcement office are making legally incorrect public proclamations.
Weaponizing and cherry picking federal statutes to threaten Nebraska state lawmakers is a tactic seen this year by Nebraska’s anti-cannabis Attorney General and Governor. The complexity of what’s going down in Nebraska sounds like an HBO special: to circumvent democratic laws, a lawsuit was filed by one former lawmaker to throw out the voters will on the inaccurate claim federal law doesn’t allow state authorized medical cannabis exceptions and laws (21 USC 822(d) says explicitly otherwise as intended by Congress) as step one; step two is, to prevent the lawsuit from being dismissed as moot if the Nebraska legislature passes laws to regulate medical cannabis possession and sale, the attorney general of Nebraska, ignoring 21 USC 822(d) which allows state medical programs to apply for federal approval, lies or unintentionally deceives the public by falsely claiming 21 USC 822(d) does not exist and that instead federal law doesn’t allow every state in the country to continue their nearly three decade old state authorized medical cannabis exemptions to the Controlled Substances Act; sigh…and step three, as exposed in a cannabis legal conference this week a former certain Nebraska governor is funding politicians to be against cannabis regulations and controlling cannabis?
Does that make sense?
So by suing Nebraska, former lawmakers, who should be experts in law, are misinforming the courts, the public, and law enforcement, by claiming for the first time anywhere that I’m aware of, that federal laws forbid state medical cannabis laws to be implemented in states like Nebraska.
This is absurd! Meanwhile, Iowa officials have for three years endorsed in public official recommendations – as well as legislative bills – not to outlaw medical cannabis because of federal law but to follow federal law by applying to the feds under 21 USC 822(d). Indeed Iowa officials wrote letters to federal government agencies inquiring about the issue of federal law and Iowa state medical cannabis laws and the FDA wrote back and confirmed there was no concern of any legal grounds for federal interference – in Iowa.
The feds have never sued states like Nebraska anywhere to argue federal laws outlaw state medical cannabis because it isn’t how the law works. The Feds have to follow the law Congress wrote decades ago in 21 USC 822(d), which provides an approval process no state but Iowa has ever even began to apply to use. The Feds also have to follow Supreme Court case law precedent saying Feds can’t ban state medical cannabis experiments under our system of federalism (cannabis isn’t a states rights issue legally so much as a federalism issue but politicians find states rights more romantic and compelling so use that term loosely when they should be saying cannabis laws are examples of the processes inherent to federalism).
Indeed, the legal considerations are complex, so it’s understandable the Nebraska Attorney General doesn’t know about 21 USC 822(d). This weekend Omaha is having town halls about the cannabis issue so I’m writing about this issue to warn the public the AG is, unfortunately, biased, and whether intentionally dishonest or not his media statements interpreting federal law aren’t addressing this statute.
I’m taking this weekend to write as well so on this one other issue…
The Black Market
If the Nebraska Legislature falls for the AG bluff, and fails to regulate safe access to medical cannabis through state regulated and state controlled institutions as the AG is asking (from his legal concerns about federal law of course, not his anti cannabis bias and compassion less unjustifiable hate), the black market in Nebraska, a state now surrounded by legal cannabis in all directions, will be flooded with illegal unsafe untested leftover rejected products that failed nearby state safety tests, increase black market crime and violence, endanger Nebraskans lives, and empower cartels.
The fault will lie solely with lawmakers ignorance of 21 USC 822(d) and their leaders, like AG Hilgers, abusing the sanctity of their office and official dictates, which officers lay down their lives daily to defend and enforce, hastily issuing incorrect and appealable, litigatable, WRONG public statements to the media falsely informing lawmakers on important timely issues, misleading and potentially empowering criminals as a result, when instead their office should have issued a respectable non politicized legal AG advisory memo on whether 21 USC 822(d) should be utilized by Nebraska lawmakers. Concerns about complying with federal law and not conspiring to create a federal racketeering, federally illegal medical cannabis state program that, like other states excepting Iowa, haven’t researched or applied for federal approval to their state medical cannabis laws, are valid concerns. But using these concerns to falsify and hide their biases, their intentions appearing to be not about law but about abusing the law and ignoring the law.m, is degree the discussion will end and turn to lawsuits. I’ll bring them myself; I’ve done it in other states before with great successes. If these concerns of AG Hilgers about respecting federal law wish to remain viable then Hilgers will now be obligated to read the entire federal law as intended when Congress provided such a process for states to apply for federal approval via 21 USC 822(d). Partial misreadings of federal law leading to inaccurate AG advisory memos doesn’t just endanger policy makers and LEO lives but public respect for the office and even individual careers for making bad legal arguments. This is a severe miss step by people I presume truly do want the best for society and aren’t intentionally trying to empower criminal markets, so it’s a relief to see finally one other states besides my home state of Iowa bringing these concerns about federal protections for their state authorized medical cannabis patients who aren’t merely numbers on a stat book in an office but neighbors, coaches, referees, teachers and community members with elderly families to protect and love.
In 1987, Grinspoon vs DEA ruled federal law doesn’t allow state medical programs to be banned. And in 2006, when the Gonzales vs Oregon case was ruled on after the Feds sued to shut down a state assisted suicide program (Dr. Kavorkian is a far cry from medical cannabis laws) SCOTUS ruled the Feds can’t ban state medical laws.
That’s why the Feds have never sued to stop medical cannabis laws.
That’s why Nebraska will fail in their lawsuit claiming federal law prevents state implementation.
But the Attorney General is 100% right: we cannot morally justify making Nebraska medical cannabis patients into federal outlaws just because every other state has chosen that path. If genuinely concerned about helping to regulate cannabis safely, AG Hilgers in Nebraska should look into Iowa’s work on utilizing 21 USC 822(d) to apply for federal approval.
If that prevents medical cannabis implementations from being finalized for a couple of years, Nebraska will survive. As my team said at the Iowa Legislature this year, before the Iowa GOP controlled House voted 86-4 to legalize medical psilocybin for opiate addiction alcoholism and veterans, we cannot make these patients federal criminals (and they are patients not all are abusing the system AG Hilgers have some compassion). Iowa lawmakers initially scoffed at us but when we insisted politely Iowa leaders agreed that if 21 USC 822(d) protects Iowa patients then lawmakers will pursue applying for that path by creating an Iowa task force to apply to comply with federal laws.
So, if Nebraska lawmakers want to truly choose this week, as they debate marijuana regulations at town halls, there’s only two paths: not passing a bill at the legislature and leaving marijuana distribution to the black market, or two, regulating medical cannabis with the stipulation no sales until an application for 21 USC 822(d) is approved. I would allow sales while the federal application is pending to control the black market and not be on the losing side of an inevitable politicized issue as well.
What I wouldn’t do as an AG is dent my political capital and credibility by getting caught publicly claiming federal law doesn’t allow his office to empower law enforcement to control and regulate medical cannabis, which is here to stay, when 21 USC 822(d) clearly provides Nebraska officials with a way to copy Iowa and engage with and work with the Feds.
The current tactic of scapegoating the Feds as an excuse to leave the medical cannabis law unregulated and unsafe and uncontrolled is transparent and doomed to fail. We expect more from our law makers and we expect better informed legal proclamations from Attorney Generals, whose duty is first and foremost to implement and follow the laws, not let political bias against an issue cloud their judgment when making conclusive statements that are passed off as legally correct but are legally not correct, an error which if colleagues and lawyers of the AG follow could end up with egg on everyone’s face come court time.
These AG statements this week will one day end up in court litigation as proof the AG isn’t following or hasn’t researched the federal laws, (see 21 USC 822(d)) and is intentionally ignoring that statute to try and desperately weakly and somewhat concerningly make an effort to make sure everybody knows years later he did everything he could to prevent your grandmother from getting off hard drugs and switching to medical cannabis instead.
Drug dealers will love the AG’s bluff about federal laws being reason to let a Wild West of unregulated black markets for cannabis patients proliferate in Nebraska but, it’s not right to do that to patients. To have such potential as an AG to protect Nebraskans from federal criminality by applying on behalf of the AG office to the Feds via 21 USC 822(d) and bring Nebraska marijuana laws to the Feds for review for exemption, but to instead as AG make an argument that lawmakers should just not do their job and leave a Wild West of unregulated marijuana sales?…that isnt going to change the 70% of voters demanding this medical cannabis law not be tossed by a biased legal team that shouldn’t waste court resources with inaccurate legal arguments?
That’s not how politicians stay in office.
That’s how they get primaried.
And most people who run for and get elected to state office take opportunities to pass laws that protect their communities from black markets. I know few politicians who would knowingly ignore their lawmaking duty and intentionally allow black markets to control marijuana under the new legal framework voters just voted for.
And in the days of social media, campaigns for reelection by biased AGs need to not be seen as lying or being unaware about federal law.
See you in court soon, Hilgers. The entire country will want to litigate with you after your claims this week to the media and this session about your failure to read the federal laws before proclaiming what they mean. The arguments you wrongly advanced are ripe for SCOTUS to step in and your office just established itself as way out of its league. So in parting WeedPress has one last word of free advice: tell your arguments to the judge. Tell it to the judge. The public doesn’t know the law so tell it, to the judge. May the most informed legal expert (not you) prevail.
Updates of this seasons drama will be regular here on WeedPress. Nobody else is covering Nebraska like we will. Stay tuned. This is gonna be better than the ending to Yellowstone. And if anyone wants to run against the Nebraska AG, I can connect you with fundraisers endorsements staff door knockers volunteers and the best connected Ivy League attorneys money can’t buy. I’ve been here working these federal cannabis law issues a long time, and unlike AG Hilgers, I know these laws and the people who know these laws know me. We can work together or against each other. I don’t care which but – I promise you – this federal issue now invoked will be worked on thoroughly and isn’t going to be finished by a blind AG bluffing about his expertise in the laws making statements to the media that are going to get him destroyed in court.
I’m all in in Nebraska and on the ground, having travelled tens of thousands of miles in the state over the past two years. Show your cards, fold, cheat, I don’t care. The law requires civic engagement and I knew twenty years ago your bias would cause you to regrettably pull this lie about federal laws so I became an expert in federal laws and the CSA and taught attorneys and our team met with the top federal narcotics law and policy experts in the highest offices in the country who agreed we knew these laws so now it’s time to litigate this burning issue out. The height of immorality is desanctifying the highest law enforcement office in the state to enforce personal bias about now legally protected rights and run roughshod over the constitution, Congress, federal law, federalism, and the truth. Lacking compassion is gross. Lying about the law to lawmakers is unforgivable. Updates soon
Relevant: http://leadershipinstitute.org/the-laws-of-the-public-policy-process/
37. Don’t rely on being given anything you don’t ask for.
38. In politics, nothing moves unless pushed.
39. Winners aren’t perfect. They made fewer mistakes than their rivals.
40. One big reason is better than many little reasons.
41. In moments of crisis, the initiative passes to those who are best prepared.
42. Politics is of the heart as well as of the mind. Many people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.
43. Promptly report your action to the one who requested it.
44. Moral outrage is the most powerful motivating force in politics.
45. Pray as if it all depended on God; work as if it all depended on you.
The Laws Of The Public Policy Process
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