...divided on how to regulate these products in the market, causing much governmental controversy. There have been many groundbreaking and unprecedented court cases that have been shaping the public policy on which these substances stand on. These substances have an immediate and perilous effect on the health of all human beings. Tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, alcohol causes impaired judgment and in turn causes people to do things that affect their health physically and emotionally, and marijuana has almost the same effect as alcohol. (New England Law) Health is the ultimate concern when studying these three substances, which would lead to the Family Smoking Prevention Act to survive the Hudson Test. The Granholm case would lead one to believe that states cannot discriminate against outsiders from sales, and the medical exceptions for marijuana are valid on the fact that it has a medical advantage to some citizens. I strongly believe that the federal government has a right to regulate certain aspects of these substances based upon the danger posed to the health of citizens. This paper will discuss certain court cases that shape my opinion for every substance. Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. v. Public Service Commission of New York, 447 U.S 557 (1980) was an important case decided by the United States Supreme Court that laid out a four-part test for determining when restrictions on commercial speech violated the First Amendment...
Words: 3410 - Pages: 14
...Conflicting Federal and State Medical Marijuana Policies: A Threat to Cooperative Federalism Todd Grabarsky* Abstract The legal status of medical marijuana in the United States is something of a paradox. On one hand, federal government has placed a ban on the drug with no exceptions. On the other hand, over one-third of the states have that legalizes the cultivation, distribution, and consumption of the drug for medical purposes. As such, the usage of medical marijuana is an activity that is at the same time proscribed (by the federal government) and encouraged (by state governments through their systems of regulation and taxation). This Article seeks to shed light on this unprecedented nebulous zone of legality in which an activity is both legal and illegal, an issue that one scholar on the subject has deemed “one of the most important federalism disputes in a generation.” The issue has become heightened as two states have legalized marijuana for recreational (non-medical) purposes as a result of recent 2012 Election. This Article examines the issue from a federalism perspective. It begins by arguing that unpredictable enforcement by federal authorities in states that have legalized medical marijuana not only threatens state drug policy, but also the efficacy of federal enforcement. This argument is based on the premise that the federal drug ban exists as a cooperation between the states and the federal government. That the federal government relies on the assistance...
Words: 14241 - Pages: 57
