Comment · Thu, November 8, 2012
DEA Says It Will Ignore Marijuana Legalization
What they were answering
Jhoppa · 2 points
Word is that the justice department may be planning on suing the states directly.
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb
Alex Kozinski, judge on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said this regarding the California medical marijuana law, which I think would apply to Colorado in this case:
I believe the federal government's policy runs afoul of the 'commandeering' doctrine announced by the Supreme Court in New York v. U.S. and Printz v. U.S..
New York and Printz stand for the proposition that '[t]he Federal Government may neither issue directives requiring the States to address particular problems, nor command the States' officers, or those of their political subdivisions, to administer or enforce a federal regulatory program.'
Applied to our situation, this means that, much as the federal government may prefer that California keep medical marijuana illegal, it cannot force the state to do so.
So I do not see the justice department going after the state itself, but perhaps the citizens in Colorado individually.