Pot times
High Court's Ruling Denies Medicine To The Ill
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n1086/a04.htmlNewshawk: Empower Activists http://www.mapinc.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Wed, 06 Jul 2005 HIGH COURT'S RULING DENIES MEDICINE TO THE ILL
Source: St. Cloud Times (MN)
Copyright: 2005 St. Cloud Times
Contact:
letters@stcloudtimes.com
Website: http://www.sctimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2559
Author: Chris Wright
As unbelievable as is it may sound, the U.S. Supreme Court said in
Gonzales v. Raich that the Constitution's Commerce Clause supersedes the
unenumerated Ninth Amendment right to grow food, grow medicinal plants,
including marijuana, and to feed or medicate one's own body.
The court gave particular relevance to the New Deal case of Wickard v.
Filburn ( 1942 ), maintaining that Congress' commerce power included intrastate
production of wheat produced for the farmer's own consumption. To think
that something as fundamental to survival as the production of food and medicine
for strictly personal consumption is only a privilege granted by Congress
contravenes every principle upon which this nation was founded.
And then to deny the sick and suffering their right to medicate themselves is a
usurpation of liberty and justice so reprehensible that it confounds the most
unreasonable among us. Indeed, the unenumerated rights protected by the
Ninth Amendment will never be protected.
The Ninth Amendment is a dead letter.
This decision demands that we put an Enumerated Rights Amendment into the
Constitution. And let's demand to have it authorized by state
constitutional conventions instead of by the state legislatures.
This is a matter for the people to decide, not elected officials. With
God's grace, perhaps America won't have to thank the Almighty Congress for the
dinner we harvest.
Chris Wright
Edina
