HELENA - Two medical marijuana providers have accused the U.S. government of civil rights violations in what may be the first lawsuit of its kind in response to a federal crackdown on pot operations across the nation.
The owners of Montana Caregivers Association and MCM Caregivers claim federal raids on pot businesses across Montana in March were unconstitutional, exceeded the government's authority and pre-empted the state's medical marijuana law.
Since then, federal agents have raided two Washington state dispensaries, and federal prosecutors have sent letters of warning to leaders in most of the 15 states with medical marijuana laws.
The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Missoula against the government, Department of Justice, Attorney General Eric Holder and U.S. Attorney for Montana Michael Cotter.
The plaintiffs claim the intent of the raids was to shut down the medical pot industry.
"The federal government has made clear its intent to threaten and eventually eliminate any business or enterprise related to the medical use of marijuana," Christopher Williams of the Montana Caregivers Association and Randy Leibenguth of MCM Caregivers claimed in the lawsuit.
The Department of Justice did not comment when contacted Wednesday. Cotter spokeswoman Jessica Fehr also declined comment, saying the U.S. attorney's office had not been served with the lawsuit.
New Mexico attorney Paul Livingston, who is representing the plaintiffs, believes this is the first constitutional challenge of the government's actions.
"I'm surprised nobody's raised a 10th Amendment challenge," Livingston said. "This is a process going on in all the states that have approved medical marijuana. They're trying to set limits."
The 10th Amendment says powers not delegated to the U.S. or prohibited by the Constitution are reserved to the states. Current Montana law says a marijuana provider can't be arrested, prosecuted or penalized if they do not exceed the amount of pot they are allowed to keep per patient.
Federal agents executed 26 search warrants against pot businesses in Montana on March 14, seizing drugs, cash, weapons and vehicles in what Cotter called part of a drug-trafficking investigation. No charges have been filed, and Cotter's office has since refused to comment on the investigation.
Cotter's warning letter to Montana legislative leaders said the Department of Justice considers it a priority to prosecute anybody involved in the trade of any illegal drugs. But the letter added the department would not pursue prosecution of seriously ill individuals who follow state law in using medical marijuana
That and similar letters issued by Cotter's counterparts have caused several states to reassess their laws.
Washington's governor recently vetoed a law to create licensed dispensaries. New Jersey has asked for guidance from the Department of Justice before implementing its new law.
Montana lawmakers passed a bill that would effectively ban marijuana businesses by making it illegal to charge for marijuana and limiting the number of patients per provider.
Medical marijuana advocates in the state have organized protests such as one held Wednesday on the steps of the state Capitol. A couple dozen protesters waved signs at passing cars, urging the governor to veto the bill.
Gov. Brian Schweitzer has said he will let the bill become law without his signature later this week.
Protesters also are planning a petition drive in which they hope to gather enough signatures to block the bill from becoming law.
In the lawsuit, Williams and Leibenguth claim that because the U.S. Constitution does not expressly grant the government powers over medical marijuana, the government violated the 10th Amendment to overrule Montana's medical marijuana laws.
The plaintiffs are asking Judge Donald Molloy to declare the raids unconstitutional and prevent the government from threatening, interfering or prosecuting them for activities allowed under state law.
They are also asking to be compensated for damages, but do not specify an amount.
Link -
https://billingsgazette.com/news/stat...cc4c002e0.html

[Rednick]

Hiding behind their Constitution again!
Fucking cowards.

[Rouge]

Glory, hallelujah!!!

[Tony Aroma]

This is NOT a 10th Amendment issue. The 10th Amendment applies only to powers not specifically granted to the federal government in the Constitution. It's already been established that the Commerce Clause gives the feds the right to "regulate" virtually anything anywhere any time, inter-state AND intra-state. See Wickard v. Filburn.

What they need to do in MT is establish the state medical market as being separate and distinct from the national/international black market. As long as the feds view all mj commerce as one big market, they can do whatever they want to shut down state mmj programs. Even if mmj commerce is totally within the state, it still affects the national market because it is part of the same market. If the state market is separate, totally contained within the state, and in no way is involved with the black market, then the Commerce Clause does not apply and it becomes a 10th Amendment issue.

I'm not a lawyer, but am available for legal advice if anybody in MT wants a clue.

[medicalgreen]

The Montana Freemen were born out of where else?

Montana!!!

Go Montana GO!!!

It's a surprising coincidence some might find, that the founders of the Montana Freemen, were Leroy Schweitzer and Dan Peterson, and that Gov. Brian Schweitzer is directly related to Leroy Schweitzer the head of the Montana Freemen, currently ILLEGALLY held in Jail, ILLEGALLY KIDNAPPED and held without bond, without trial, and without pants, sitting in his underwear, watching his trial from closed circuit TV in his cold cell.

There is something special about Montana, VERY SPECIAL!

As a California, I salute the people of Montana that are sovereign freedom loving individuals, and if a group as powerful as the Montana Freemen can be born just down the way from Billings, then possibly an entire revolution could be launched form this last stand battleground.

As a tribute to Montana and her people, I would like to remind everyone of the important facts that Leroy Schweitzer found in the Montana Codes Annotated.

1.) The Principal over the Agent. It was discovered that at any time the free and non elected people could press the "reset" button on government that is elected. At the local level, WE literally set up a whole new government. I do not remember the name for this off hand, but I will be sure to look it up and post it here once I find it. But it represents the fact that the people who are not hired, are never bound to be obligated to those they hired, and anytime they so choose, they can elect to change over their form of government and replace it with a new one. As the "Interest" can never rise above the "Principal", from whose source it was created from to begin with, never can the Agent rise above the Principal, from whose power their authority is derived from.

2.) Our one supreme Court -- -- EXTREMELY IMPORTANT!!!
Again, it was not some idealistic philosophy, but was found in the Codes themselves. The REAL "Supreme Court" was NEVER elected guys in Washington or the several States for that matter. The REAL, TRUE supreme Court, is made up of a quorum who come together, empanel each other sworn and oaths signed with affidavits, and given evidence, then that group of 12 can indict anyone or anything they so choose. The power was never in the Corporation it always resided in the FREE people, not elected, or "hired" for pay. That is the "Key". This court is our court of last resort, the common law court, and it never went away despite the attempts by the New World Order Gangsters to try their best to stop it or "overturn" it.

3.) A "Lien" is a very important thing to understand if you truly want to be "Free" as you can be in this world. -- -- Should I decide that anyone in this forum injured me personally, I could do something very simple, very dangerous and very far reaching. Or I could make it all up as well, write it out on a piece of paper, sign it, and mail it to you. With a Notary Presentment you would be held to answer for that "claim". Now I would give you 15 days to respond, and after that, I send you "notice of fault". Reminding you of your duty to respond to my claim. Should you fail to a secind time, and you are in receipt of my "Notice of Default" now, given another 15 days grace period, I am now close to having a "perfected lien" in fact. This might not seem like much to you, but everything I stated in that claim that was not rebutted point for point, is held by all witnesses to be FACT now. That means if I said you owed me 1 Billion dollars for damages, because we all know money cannot pay for real injuries, and you do not object, that 1 Billion dollars has NOW BEEN CREATED, through the debt manufacturing process we call "commercial law". And yes, you will in fact now owe me 1 Billion Dollars. If you think I cannot collect, think again. I can legally attach everything you own to my claim, place it on a UCC-1 and claim it as my own. At that point no court in the world can say it's not mine.

This is the horror of the commercial monetary system we live under now, and this is the truth the Montana Freemen were trying to teach us all. It is a double edged sword that can be used against us, if we are ignorant, or used by us, if we want to become more powerful through knowledge and it's application.

Anyone who finds this of interest should look into it more.

GO MONTANA!!!

[Hydrosun]

Originally Posted by Tony Aroma

This is NOT a 10th Amendment issue. The 10th Amendment applies only to powers not specifically granted to the federal government in the Constitution. It's already been established that the Commerce Clause gives the feds the right to "regulate" virtually anything anywhere any time, inter-state AND intra-state. See Wickard v. Filburn.

What they need to do in MT is establish the state medical market as being separate and distinct from the national/international black market. As long as the feds view all mj commerce as one big market, they can do whatever they want to shut down state mmj programs. Even if mmj commerce is totally within the state, it still affects the national market because it is part of the same market. If the state market is separate, totally contained within the state, and in no way is involved with the black market, then the Commerce Clause does not apply and it becomes a 10th Amendment issue.

I'm not a lawyer, but am available for legal advice if anybody in MT wants a clue.

I'm sorry Mr. Aroma but I am going to have to DISAGREE with your legal analysis there.

I have read the US Constitution many times and there was once a time (see Lochner Era) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lochner_era where : The Lochner era is a period in American legal history in which the Supreme Court of the United States tended to strike down laws held to be infringing on economic liberty or private contract rights,

The interstate commerce clause is NOT more important than the rest of the constitution and the power to regulate interstate commerce should NOT violate other constitutional provisions, such as the 10th amendment.

That is my opinion but the court probably still agrees with your intestate commerce argument (much to our detriment).

The current ruling on cannabis and interstate commerce is the Gnzales v. Raich case https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonzales_v._Raich
Which says that even a 6 plant PERSONAL garden by a cancer patient can be REGULATED by INTERSTATE COMMERCE, therefor your suggestion of setting up a INTRASTATE only operation seems doomed to failure.

[40AmpstoFreedom]

This is the picture that greets you when you click the link to the news article:



A beautiful example of just how fucking stupid our government is. What in the hell are they wearing? Are you fuckin kiddin me? More than a fair share of guys gladly watch their women float around their gardens with nothing on all the time...

I wonder how much each of those suits cost the tax payers alone.

There was a quote in a news article I read recently in reference to the federal government that I think applies here as well:

"You can quote me on it: That bunch has a real corner on stupid," Edwards told Reuters.

Texas county official says "stupid" feds sparked fire
Tom Edwards, the county attorney in rural Motley County east of Lubbock, said on Friday that the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives was responsible on Tuesday for sparking a fire that consumed 150 acres.

https://www.reuters.com/article/2011/...74C76T20110513

[Hydrosun]

Full body suit but exposed ears and bald head full of mush can't be hurt, because that pig couldn't hear the truth even if his grandmother rose from the grave and smacked the cheeseburger out of his hand.

[turbolaser4528]

fuck em all, time to overgrow.

[Masterlow]

Originally Posted by turbolaser4528

fuck em all, time to overgrow.

aye aye!! overgrow the planet, they can't beat nature.