“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” -Amendment X, U.S. Constitution
I think by now we can all admit that the War on Drugs is not only a massive failure, but is costing Americans billions of dollars, our liberty and the very Constitution upon which our Republic is built. So let’s start arguing the right thing. It is not only the laws surrounding the war on drugs that come into question, but the constitutionality of the policy itself. The Constitution provides the structure and authority of the federal government. For four decades now current drug policies and their accompanying laws have been slowly chipping away at this foundation. This puts at risk the guaranteed, natural rights of every American, not just “criminals”. First and foremost, the 10th Amendment states that no powers specifically granted to the federal government fall to the states. The drug war “is not addressed specifically in the text of the U.S. Constitution, so it falls under the broad umbrella of powers that our Founders “left to the States and the people” in the 10th Amendment” (Rink, 2011). This jurisdictional limitation should be enough to invalidate and reverse all federal prohibitions in and of itself. For example, prohibition of alcohol on a federal level was only achieved through passage of the 18th Amendment, which granted regulatory authority to the federal government. This authority later reverted to the States with passage of the 21st Amendment and the repeal of Prohibition. The prohibition of drugs was given no such consideration and so is an unconstitutional transfer of power to the federal government from the States and a further erosion of States' Rights. This means that all of those convicted under federal drug laws are unlawfully imprisoned. While the courts have continued to uphold these federal convictions, this does not lessen the impact of the damage to the Constitution and our Republic. Until this changes, the Constitution of the United States will continue to suffer further erosion as the federal government continues to operate beyond the scope of its authority. I think (hope, really) that I am seeing the States’ reclamation of authority with the passage of recreational marijuana laws, led by Washington and Colorado; it’s time for the states to reclaim their constitutional authority form the Federal government. After all, the further away the people are from power, the less influence we can exert over those who (wrongfully) claim authority.
Reference:
Rink, J. (2011). Is the drug war constitutional? Tenth Amendment Center. Retrieved from http://blog.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2011/05/is-the-drug-war-constitutional/