LEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA

The legalization of marijuana has been a very controversial issue recently in United States. People in the US want marijuana to be legalized for medical and recreational uses. The government does not want to legalize marijuana because it’s a dangerous and highly addictive drug. Some states have passed laws to legalize marijuana already. For example Colorado and Washington. Almost half of the states have laws for medical marijuana, but not a complete legalization of marijuana. Although the legalization is in the process, there is still a lot of controversy about this topic. One example of checks and balances in our government is the Supreme Court keeping the law of medical marijuana illegal. On May 14th 2013 the Supreme Court declined a law on medical marijuana. The Supreme Court’s ruling doesn’t overturn those state laws, but it leaves medical marijuana users open to prosecution by the federal government. This allows the states to decide if medical marijuana should be legal in their states or not. The law that the Supreme Court denied only makes the decision for the federal government, not the individual states. This shows a check because the one branch is checking the others by declining a law allowing medical marijuana in the federal government. Another example of checks and balances in our government is the supreme court establishing the federal government has the right to use the commerce clause of the constitution to regulate homegrown marijuana, even when its for approved medical use. In 2005,there was a US Supreme Court case Gonzales vs. Raich that established that. The supreme court has ruled that you can use homegrown marijuana to be used medically in all states, but state governments can decide their own rules and make laws that will be best for their state and its citizens.