The debate in the state capitol building about Alaska’s new marijuana law has caused some conservatives to side with an entity they generally abhor — the federal government.
In the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday lawmakers who have spent much of the session pounding their chests over federal overreach pointed to federal laws for proof that marijuana is still illegal, regardless of what voters did last year. “Marijuana is illegal in this state because it’s against federal law,” said Sen. Pete Kelly, R-Fairbanks. “I think the people of Alaska were lied to on that point. I think it needs to be clarified on the record that it’s against federal law and nothing we do here is going to change federal law.”
Sen. Click Bishop, R-Fairbanks, turned heads earlier this session with a floor speech featuring an adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ “Green Eggs and Ham” opposing federal overreach on resource development. On Tuesday, he said Alaska could be putting itself at risk with a changing administration. “In this spirit of this I think we ought to ask for an opinion and get a ‘get out of jail free’ card,” he said. “What’s to say that two years from now the U.S. Attorney General says ‘we’re going to enforce this’ and now the state is out of the money that it took to implement this program?”
Sen. Mike Dunleavy, R-Wasilla, also brought up the issue, pondering what grounds the state had to ignore federal law. He took the argument to its extreme, asking if the underlying justification to ignore federal law might give the state leeway on other, resource development-centric issues. “If we have a law, do we follow the law? If we choose not to, who gets to decide we don’t follow the law,” he said. “I think it opens up all kinds of possibilities for Alaska to ignore the EPA, ignore the Endangered Species Act.”
Via newsminer.com
image credit APEonline
