*Finally, somebody is calling out federal marijuana rules that need to just stop. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is doing just that. He recently balked about unfair and confusing federal policies that entrap and won’t give tax relief to marijuana-business owners – even though they need to perform business practices just like everybody else.
When the IRS refused to give a Colorado marijuana dispensary the same federal tax breaks due to other businesses, the owners gathered paperwork and asked for a Supreme Court hearing – and it was denied.
That’s when Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas weighed in to say it just ain’t right. More specifically he said Federal Marijuana laws may not be necessary given how they are greatly undermined anyway, according to an NBC News report.
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“A prohibition on interstate use or cultivation of marijuana may no longer be necessary or proper to support the federal government’s piecemeal approach,” Thomas wrote, read the NBC News report.
By piecemeal, according to the Oxford dictionary, Thomas means unsystematic and partial measures taken over a period of time.
“This contradictory and unstable state of affairs strains basic principles of federalism and conceals traps for the unwary,” he said.
Thomas has a point. Federal laws, in the interest of fairness and to support the economy, are charged to straighten out and catch up with the times.
It’s the blunt truth that 18 states allow recreational use and Federal laws don’t match their permissions nor do they support the medical marijuana allowances in 36 states across the country. Confusing?
Well, when it comes to marijuana dispensaries the feds have not fully bought in yet. Though it’s said. they look the other way, according to Thomas. But not entirely because when it comes to paying taxes marijuana dispensaries are still treated like second class businesses.
Fair to say because just like other business marijuana dispensaries have to pay employees and keep the lights on, but they don’t get to subtract business cost which gravely cuts into profits.
So, that’s why one of the most conservative justices at the Supreme Court had something to say.
Thomas stood up because legal Marijuana dispensaries don’t get the tax breaks that help keep American businesses a float – even though they support the economy.
“Nonetheless [they] owe substantial federal income tax,” Thomas wrote.
Moreover, “The federal government’s willingness to often look the other way on marijuana is more episodic than coherent,” the justice said.
“Whatever the merits of Raich when it was decided, federal policies of the past 16 years have greatly undermined its reasoning,” he said. Also Thomas called the federal government’s out dated approach to marijuana regulation “half-in, half-out.”
Thomas was referring to the outlived 2005 Gonzales v. Raich Supreme Court ruling that contributed to events formerly making marijuana illegal countrywide.
Source: NBC News
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