So, calling any lawyer advocates: can you help us get the DEA – whose legal turf this most definitely ain’t, to return to their quarters and just do their fed things….??
We’re not lawyers for sure, but feel the legal case against the DEA’s involvement with Drug Safety Utah and the UMA might be stronger than allowed by the expert interviewer Marijuana Moment consulted (see our previous 5/6/18 post).
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First, this isn’t the statute’s language, but the federal Hatch Act “forbids the intimidation or bribery of voters and restricts political campaign activities by federal employees. It prohibits using any public funds designated for relief or public works for electoral purposes.”
https://ift.tt/29Vx8bq
Clearly, the activities of Agent Fairbanks (of 2016 “Reefer Rabbit” fame) and his DEA Salt Lake City Metro Narcotics Task Force are clearly being done for “political purposes” and only that purpose.
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And then as the Marijuana Moment article notes, there is the matter of “whether the 1986 Anti-Drug Abuse Act, which formally established the DEA’s task force program, permits this type of activity.”
https://bit.ly/2wi0ieX
“The mission of the DEA Metro Narcotics Task Force is to enforce federal, state and local drug laws by targeting and dismantling mid to upper level drug trafficking organizations and clandestine laboratory operators within Utah.”
https://ift.tt/2KBeNxL
How is THIS activity part of THAT mission…?!?
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Also besides what’s reported in this article, the DEA’s actively inserting itself into a matter of Utah law-making seems to contravene another, newer federal law… …specifically the “Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018.”
“Medical cannabis patients and businesses are protected from federal intervention. The more than 2,200 page Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018 included expanded language for medical cannabis and hemp production.
Specifically, Section 538 of the bill extends protections to 46 states – more states than ever before – as well as adding Guam and Puerto Rico. Also known as the Rohrabacher–Farr amendment, the section has been included in spending bills since it was first passed in 2014.
SEC. 538. None of the funds made available under this Act to the Department of Justice may be used, with respect to any of the States of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, UTAH Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming, or with respect to the District of Columbia, Guam, or Puerto Rico, to prevent any of them from implementing their own laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession, or cultivation of medical marijuana.”
https://bit.ly/2wcs6Bz
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All of this activity by powerful, well-funded (and federal government) representatives of “the holdout 23%” reeks of cynicism, lack of compassion, ignorance of the evidence, willful mischaracterization and being beholden to other special interests – and – in this case, it’s also redolent of openly breaking federal law.
Or at the very least acting in clear defiance of their intent.
The DEA needs to cease and desist immediately.
See full article – Medical Cannabis Protections Extended to 46 States
