Photo by mandymooo, Flickr
A recent attempt to reign in medical cannabis dispensary proliferation (supply and demand) seems to have gone a bit too far on certain issues. One issue in particular stands out to me because, while not a point of heavy contention, is a good reflection of the contrast between two distinct ways of viewing the role of government, the War on Drugs, and life in general.
There doesn’t seem to be much opposition to proposals to require medical marijuana caregivers and dispensary operators to submit to unconstitutional criminal background checks.
In Colorado, Senator Chris Romer’s infamous bill that seeks to establish a comprehensive regulatory framework for the state’s booming medical cannabis industry would require background checks and other arbitrary tests of “good moral character*” for anyone wishing to operate a dispensary.
Well-known medical marijuana attorney Rob Corry, who helped Colorado patients overcome an arbitrary limit on the definition of “caregiver,” sent Romer a scathing letter refuting an early version of the legislation. The entire letter is a great read, but I especially appreciate the part that addresses background checks:
Criminal background checks as a requirement for serving as a caregiver are unconstitutional and unreasonably restrict patient choice of caregiver. Pursuant to the Colorado Constitution, Article XVIII § 14, the voters already defined a caregiver as an adult with a significant responsibility for the well-being of a patient, period. Not an adult who has lived an error-free life. Not an ordained saint, although some caregivers should qualify for that designation. The practical reality is that many caregivers, since they are knowledgeable in how to cultivate and produce marijuana, picked up criminal convictions at some point in their lives. These people now seek to turn their valuable knowledge into something that helps suffering patients. They should be welcomed to the business world, not shut out in the cold.
For victims of the War on Drugs, the punishment doesn’t end when they’re released from prison. The hysterical anti-drug machine, which peaked in the 1980s and 1990s, rendered Americans with prior drug convictions (not rape or murder – only drug) ineligible for federal college financial aid programs, barred de facto from most employment opportunities, socially ostracized, and laden with psychological damage resulting from the stress and humiliation of criminal trial and incarceration.
Staying true to the cruel whims of a social majority indifferent to the suffering of others, Romer’s bill sought (I use the past tense because Romer is apparently working on revisions, but I doubt there will be much opposition to the background check clause.) to strip away yet one more meaningful opportunity from the most vulnerable people in Colorado.
With proposals like this so readily accepted by a populace so cold to non-conventional behaviors, it’s no wonder recidivism rates in the United States, where punishment is preferred to rehabilitation, are well over half.
* The apparent and undeniable embrace of a narrowly-defined lifestyle compliant with the social, sexual, political, and intellectual parameters presently embraced by a particular coalition of protestant evangelical Christians and others who unwittingly adopt that coalition’s arbitrary moral code.
