Marijuana and the Constitution

We the People

National Constitution Center

History, News Commentary, News

4.6 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 12 May 2016

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Douglas Berman of The Ohio State University and Randy Barnett of Georgetown University explore the constitutional issues at stake in the regulation and legalization of marijuana. Get the latest constitutional news, and continue the conversation, on our Facebook page and Twitter feed. We want to know what you think of the podcast! Email us at [email protected]. Please subscribe to We the People on iTunes. While you’re in the iTunes Store, leave us a rating and review—it helps other people discover what we do. Please also subscribe to Live at America’s Town Hall, featuring conversations and debates presented at the Center, across from Independence Hall in beautiful Philadelphia. We the People is a member of Slate’s Panoply network. Check out all of our sibling podcasts at iTunes.com/Panoply. Despite our congressional charter, the National Constitution Center is a private nonprofit—we receive little government support, and we rely on the generosity of people around the country who are inspired by our nonpartisan mission of constitutional debate and education. Please consider becoming a member to support our work, including this podcast. Visit constitutioncenter.org to learn more. This show was engineered by Jason Gregory and produced by Nicandro Iannacci. Research was provided by Josh Waimberg and Danieli Evans. The host of We the People is Jeffrey Rosen.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, we the people listeners. This is Nacandra Yinacci, your producer.
0:05.0	As you know, we are collecting questions for an episode of Ask Jeff later this month.
0:10.0	We have already received several excellent, excellent questions, but we want more.
0:15.6	We want to hear from everyone.
0:16.8	So please go to blog.constitution center.org and send us your questions. You can also tweet them to us at
0:26.8	Constitution CTR or post them on our Facebook page. We look forward to hearing from
0:32.0	you.
0:39.2	I'm Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, and welcome to We the People, a weekly show of constitutional debate. The National Constitution Center is the only institution in America chartered by Congress
0:47.0	to disseminate information about the U.S. Constitution on a nonpartisan basis.
0:52.0	And on today's show we dive into the constitutional debate over the regulation and legalization
0:56.8	of marijuana.
0:58.8	The drug was first outlawed nationally by their Marijuana Tax act in 1937.
1:03.0	Since 1970, marijuana has been classified as an illegal Schedule 1 drug under the Controlled Substances Act.
1:09.0	But in 1996, California became the first state to allow the use of marijuana for medical
1:14.0	purposes. As we record this show in May 2016, 24 states and the District of
1:20.2	Columbia have legalized medical marijuana for states, that's Colorado, Washington,
1:24.9	Oregon, Alaska, as well as DC have also legalized recreational marijuana.
1:30.3	This November, more states, including Nevada and Maine, will vote on the issue.
1:33.7	Joining us to explore the constitutional issues at stake in this fascinating series of legal questions
1:40.8	are two of America's leading experts in the field.
1:44.0	Douglas Berman is the Robert J Watkins Procter and Gamble Professor of Law at the Ohio State
1:49.1	University Moritz College of Law, and Randy Barnett is the Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Legal Theory
	...

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