LAPD ignores state law

Think of a state having a law protecting a certain activity - but the city police trying to bust said activity anyway.

It's been happening lately in Los Angeles.

Under a referendum of the people, California law protects medical marijuana. But the Los Angeles Police Department acts otherwise, conspiring with the DEA to raid medical marijuana emporiums that are perfectly legal. The LAPD's so-called reason is that the marijuana retailers are violating federal law.

So? Are they violating state law? Are they violating county law? Are they violating township law? Are they violating city law?

If federal law can trump a referendum that is perfectly constitutional and was passed by a state's voters, then what's the point in even dividing the country into states? Why not just have barons and counts (like the dude on 'Sesame Street') divvying up the nation as their personal fiefdoms? This is a perfect example of the extreme Right's credo of "states' rights for me, not for thee."

There's good reasons why local cops aren't required to enforce some federal laws. For one, it violates the notion of federalism to demand that local police become an arm of the federal government. Take immigration laws, for instance. If a city passes a law to bar landlords from renting out to undocumented immigrants, that comes mighty close to deputizing its own authorities to heavy-handedly enforce federal immigration law. And it creates a patchwork of inconsistent enforcement.

Why then does the LAPD enforce laws against something that's legal in California? And why does the DEA lie when it says it's not interested in busting seriously ill people who use medical marijuana? The DEA does just that on a regular basis. This is really a war against the very sick.

In fact the DEA is launching a new wave of raids in California against marijuana emporiums that are legal under state law. The Bush regime urges folks to pop pills made by pharmaceutical giants (which are big GOP donors) instead of marijuana, even though the drugs urged by the ruling regime are largely ineffective.

The city needs to step in and prohibit the police from raiding marijuana dispensaries and also bar the DEA from doing so.

(Source: http://explorehonolulu.com/honolulu-hi-world-news/index.php/Health/69;
http://www.dailybreeze.com/opinion/articles/9252756.html?page=2&c=y)