steved
12-07-2008, 05:42 PM
Hello all-- I'm considering joining the medical marijuana program for my state (New Mexico), but was wondering about a certain issue.
If I register for the program, my name and address will appear in a state marijuana-program-registry database. State law, as everyone knows, does not protect medical-marijuana users from federal arrest and prosecution.
My question is, what happens if the Drug Enforcement Administration or the FBI put pressure on state medical marijuana programs and demand to see their database of names and addresses. Must the states give those names and addresses to the DEA? Can the DEA sue for them? What kind of risk is associated with having one's name and address in a database of marijuana users?
Is anonymous illegal use better than state-legal but federal-illegal use in which one's identity as a marijuana user is known?
What bothers me particularly is that the state program allows one to grow several plants, but "cultivating" marijuana, from a federal law point of view, is much more serious in terms of sentence and fine than merely possessing a relatively small amount of marijuana.
If I register for the program, my name and address will appear in a state marijuana-program-registry database. State law, as everyone knows, does not protect medical-marijuana users from federal arrest and prosecution.
My question is, what happens if the Drug Enforcement Administration or the FBI put pressure on state medical marijuana programs and demand to see their database of names and addresses. Must the states give those names and addresses to the DEA? Can the DEA sue for them? What kind of risk is associated with having one's name and address in a database of marijuana users?
Is anonymous illegal use better than state-legal but federal-illegal use in which one's identity as a marijuana user is known?
What bothers me particularly is that the state program allows one to grow several plants, but "cultivating" marijuana, from a federal law point of view, is much more serious in terms of sentence and fine than merely possessing a relatively small amount of marijuana.