Hacker News Reader

> You basically have federal US laws outlawing anything having to do with marijuana, ...

On the theory that growing hemp in your garden is "interstate commerce". The laws are unconstitutional. It's all just vote whoring by the princes of Washington, D.C.

Decriminilazation is inevitable. It will take the form of a constitutional amendment, just like the one that stripped the feds of control of alcoholic beverages.

View on HN

Unfortunately there's Supreme Court precedent that growing wheat in your own backyard for your own use is "interstate commerce". Why? Because by growing your own wheat, you're not buying somebody else's wheat, and that affects interstate commerce. boggle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wickard_v._Filburn

It seems difficult to apply that precedent to marijuana, as commerce in marijuana is banned (so the "you'd be buying it from someone else" step never kicks in).

I think it was more of an example of the absurd legal gymnastics they're able to do to justify the desired conclusion of a case.

"Indolence from marijuana use increases the unpurchased goods overhanging the interstate market."

Actually if you read the case, they say that growing the wheat was OK. Harvesting it was OK. Using it as fodder would have been OK. The unlawful act was threshing the wheat.

Ambrose Bierce was a sunny optimist.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com