XPost: or.politics, seattle.politics, ca.politics   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns, alt.support.marijuana   
   From: a425couple@hotmail.com   
      
   To thwart federal pot laws, cannabis sellers find an ally in fights over   
   gun rights, Obamacare   
      
   BY MIKE LEWIS   
   FEBRUARY 1, 2018 AT 8:31 AM   
      
   (AP Photo/Noah Berger)   
   LISTEN: To thwart federal pot laws, cannabis sellers find an ally in   
   fights over gun rights, Obamacare   
      
   It’s been a nervous business from the get-go, Jerina Pillert said. The   
   decision to sell marijuana for a living means existing between what’s   
   locally sanctioned and nationally forbidden, between persistent customer   
   demand and a skittish finance industry. It isn’t for the faint of heart,   
   she said.   
      
   Pillert, co-owner of #Hashtag cannabis stores in Seattle and Redmond,   
   said the chaos, the choppy seas are a daily reality. It’s not simply the   
   worry of Drug Enforcement Agency agents kicking down the door, it’s also   
   the frightened bankers who covet compound interest but fear the feds.   
      
   “There’s pressure,” she said. “We expect it.”   
      
   That pressure ramped up recently when Attorney General Jeff Sessions   
   withdrew federal guidelines that limited enforcement on and prosecutions   
   of businesses which sold legal pot under state law.   
      
   But law experts on the tension between opposing state and federal laws   
   and the looming fight over legal pot, say the cannabis industry can find   
   comfort in successful legal battles to thwart gun control, the   
   Affordable Care Act — and even laws from the 1800s about slave catching.   
      
   “Although the federal law supersedes in some areas, in many areas   
   including what’s called the police power, the federal government and the   
   state government should be viewed as being equal,” said Hugh Spitzer, a   
   law professor at the University of Washington. “And (where) states have   
   sovereignty; they can’t be superseded.”   
      
   Spitzer, an expert in the tension between state and federal law, said   
   the U.S. Supreme Court consistently has ruled that the federal   
   government is limited in what federal laws it can impose on states.   
      
   For example, when Congress passed a law banning possession handguns near   
   schools, the nation’s high court held that such limits were solely in a   
   state’s authority – not Washington D.C.’s. Specifically, the court ruled   
   that the federal government was allowed to limit interstate sale and   
   movement of handguns but not possession standards within a state.   
      
   The Supreme Court also has held that the federal government is limited   
   in its ability to get states to enforce legal federal authority, a   
   process called commandeering. “The federal government can’t make states   
   collect data for it,” Spitzer said. “The most recent example of that is   
   the so-called Obamacare.”   
      
   In this legal fight, the federal government required states to   
   participate in the Affordable Care Act’s expansion of Medicare. “And the   
   U.S. Supreme Court simply said you can’t do that; they don’t have to   
   participate.”   
      
   Which brings the discussion back to pot. People who assume federal law   
   trumps state law in all cases are wrong, legal experts say. In   
   Washington, state law simply says the state considers the sale of   
   marijuana legal if done within state guidelines. People who comply won’t   
   be charged with a state crime.   
      
   This means federal agencies can spend their money to investigate and   
   prosecute but they can’t compel the Seattle or Spokane police, for   
   example, to help out. Given that established law in other cases says the   
   states can’t be forced, makes it impractical from both staffing and   
   expense for the Department of Justice to impose its marijuana standard.   
      
   “The feds can spend their money hiring deputies and drug enforcement   
   people to run around shutting down our state-licensed marijuana stores,”   
   Spitzer said. “They could try doing that if they want.   
      
   “But they have got to spend their money to do it.”   
      
   In the 1800s, the federal government tried to force states to return   
   escaped slaves when they were captured. Northern states, which were   
   anti-slavery, balked. Initially, those states lost in court but after   
   the Civil War, the statute was removed.   
      
   But one federal caveat remains — The National Guard. The federal   
   government does hold the legal authority to assemble and direct the   
   National Guard within any state. Could U.S. Government direct the guard   
   to enforce federal pot laws?   
      
   “Technically they could do that,” he said. “Whether they could pull that   
   off politically is another question.”   
      
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