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Federal Hearing Could Lead to the End of Prohibition
Thursday, October 30, 2014 21:02
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While Uncle Sam stands smugly behind his pulpit of prohibition, a federal hearing is currently underway in California that could serve to undermine the old coot’s grey-haired drug policies and set a brave new standard for marijuana reform in the United States. Earlier this week, a U.S. district judge granted a three-day examination into the Schedule I classification that the Drug Enforcement Administration strapped to the back of marijuana more than 40 years ago.
At the root of the hearing lies a criminal case involving several men who were charged with cultivating cannabis in a national forest. Legal council for the defendants argue that the indictment was a breach of the constitution, on the basis that “marijuana does not fit the criteria of a Schedule I Controlled Substance,” and has since filed a motion to have the charges dismissed.
Many legal experts were shocked to learn that federal Justice Kimberly Mueller granted what is destined to become a historical case in the realm of American drug reform. “It’s earth-shattering to even have this hearing,” Adam Levine, adjunct professor at Stetson University College of Law toldThe Christian Science Monitor. “The fact that the judge is willing to hear this case means she is willing to question if the DEA’s original classification is constitutional.”
Four decades of rotten, federal policy against a natural herb is enough, as far as San Francisco criminal defense attorney and NORML legal committee member, Zenia Gilg is concerned. “At that point, not a lot was known about the medicinal benefits of marijuana,” she said. “It’s about time somebody looked at the new evidence.”
Despite the objections of prosecutors, Judge Mueller said she would grant the hearing because legal council for the defendants had submitted expert accounts “showing there is new scientific and medical information raising contested issues of fact regarding whether the continued inclusion of marijuana as a Schedule One controlled substance… passes constitutional muster.”
Source: http://truthisscary.com/2014/10/federal-hearing-could-lead-to-the-end-of-prohibition/
SHMOKIN’.