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Editorial:
Constitutional
Inconveniences
1/3/03
David Borden, Executive
Director, [email protected], 1/3/03
Constitutions can be inconvenient
to governments sometimes. A court in Ontario, Canada, has thrown
marijuana enforcement in that province into disarray by invalidating the
law banning possession. Colombia's president feels inconvenienced
by a Supreme Court ruling making drug possession in the country legal,
and wants to amend his country's Constitution for that reason.
Sometimes a society finds
a Constitution's true implications too inconvenient. Our Bill of
Rights in the US has bent and bent and bent to conform to a drug war ideology
and the desires of its police and prosecutors to employ every tactic they
can dream up to arrest, jail and impoverish proven or accused drug offenders.
Still, the possibility of
relief from drug war tyranny through Constitutional means continues to
exist, if only at the margins. There is a Fourth Amendment protecting
against unreasonable search and seizure, even if the interpretation of
that amendment has been diluted quite unreasonably. There is a First
Amendment that guarantees the right to write or speak about drug or drug
war issues, even if rogue prosecutors or legislators unscrupulously try
sometimes to suppress speech they dislike.
While the Constitution is
sometimes derided by police state apologists as "protecting criminals,"
the Constitution is in truth the ultimate law of the land, governing all
other laws. Those who violate or abuse the Constitution violate and
abuse law in its very spirit. In their zealotry to punish those who
commit what they rightly or wrongly consider crimes, they commit the worst
of crimes. They attack our democracy and our system of laws at its
very heart. They threaten to undo an experiment in freedom and egalitarianism
that has inspired nations around the globe.
This week's news highlights
a number of drug war crimes that demonstrate the importance of the Bill
of Rights to our nation and the urgent need to restore its glory:
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Northampton, Massachusetts,
police seize bail money from a mother and father before they can bail their
daughter, accused of marijuana distribution, out of jail. Their justification
was, they claimed, the cash had "a slight odor of marijuana."
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Louisiana police turn a small
town into a war zone while arresting peaceful members of a community whom
they accuse of cocaine offenses.
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A New Jersey court hears the
case of Ed Forchion, activist whose parole was revoked because he dared
to express his opinion publicly that marijuana should be legal.
In light of these and countless
more abuses throughout all our country, all of the time, the full purpose
of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights should be clearer. The
Bill of Rights is not only intended to protect the rights of the accused.
The Bill of Rights exists to prevent governmental authorities from degenerating
into kidnappers, thieves and thugs.
That ideal is not always
realized; in the end, only a spirit of justice and freedom can hold in
check the zealotry and corruption to which any institution of power is
vulnerable. But at least the tool exists with which to hold tyranny
at bay and strive for something better. The drug warriors are a principal
opponent of that lofty goal. But in the end their overreaching and
disregard for the rule of law will unmask the indecency of their agenda:
Freedom and justice will one day prevail.
-- END --
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Issue #270, 1/3/03
Editorial: Constitutional Inconveniences | Pressure for Change Mounts as Ontario Judge Rules Canadian Marijuana Possession Law Invalid 270/californiabudget Budget Crisis Forces California Governor to Consider Early Releases, Other Prison Measures | Prosecutors Enlist in Drug Czar's Anti-Marijuana Campaign -- Will Prioritize Marijuana Cases, Lobby Against Reform | Latin American Anti-Prohibition Conference, Feb. 12-15, Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico | Cumbre Internacional Sobre Legalización, 15-Dec Febrero, Mérida, México | Newsbrief: Connecticut Legislator to Reintroduce Medical Marijuana Bill | Newsbrief: Prosecutors Seize Bail Money, Claim Pot Smell -- A New Tactic? | Newsbrief: Louisiana Drug Raid Draws Protests | Newsbrief: France Looking to Heighten Marijuana Penalties | Newsbrief: NJ Weedman to Get Day in Federal Court After Months in Jail for Thought Crime | Newsbrief: This Week's Corrupt Cop Story | Newsbrief: Afghan Opium Farmers Drive Out Eradicators | Newsbrief: Ethiopian Farmers Turn to Khat in Face of Drought, Low Coffee Prices | DC Job Opportunities at DRCNet | The Reformer's Calendar
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