John Tierney on the "Party of Pain", the GOP and the war on some drugs

John Tierney's excellent piece on "Party of Pain" (New York Times www.nytimes.com 1/21/06) rightly condemned the Administration's assault on Oregon's assisted suicide law as disrespecting state's rights and the federal system properly understood. But he failed to point out that the Controlled Substances Act used by Ashcroft as justification was itself unconstitutional as violating the rights reserved to the states and to the people. As the "constitution-in-exile" jurisprudential movement would remind us, the US Constitution is composed of enumerated powers and unenumerated rights. The Oregon assisted suicide case was rightly decided, while the Raich marijuana and Kelo eminent domain cases were wrongly decided. The disrespect for the Constitution and individual rights shown by the Republicans and Democrats causes pain in foreign and domestic policies.

When Federal alcohol prohibition was enacted, its proponents understood that a constitutional amendment was needed as the Federal government lacked authority to prohibit the ownership and production of alcoholic beverages. But something happened along the way to the prohibition of marijuana and other psychoactive drugs--the revolution in jurisprudence wrought by the victory of the New Deal. The New Deal represents nothing less than the betrayal of the American republic and the US consftitution. The war on some drugs represents the same betrayal.

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