My name is Roger Pilon. I am a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and the director of Cato's Center for Constitutional Studies. I want to thank you Mr. Chairman for inviting me to testify on the medical marihuana movement in America and on the implications of that movement for the equally robust federalism movement. Both movements, I submit, reflect the growing frustration of Americans with the accumulation of power in Washington. The medical marihuana referenda movement is a small part of that larger effort, but it brings to the fore the hypocrisy of those who invoke federalism selectively for their own political purposes.
Federalism is a neutral principle.
It stands for the idea that all power rests originally with the people, who yield up to their governments only such powers as they in fact yield up, as reflected in the constitutions of those governments. The Declaration of Independence invokes the principle when it says that the purpose of government is to secure our rights and, toward that end, that government derives its just powers from the consent of the governed. In sum, through our Constitution, we established a national government of delegated, enumerated, and thus limited powers. The ongoing federalism movement is an effort to return the federal government to its legitimate foundations, an effort to return power to the states and the people in light of the usurpation of power that has taken place largely over the 20th century, but especially since the New Deal. One manifestation of that movement is the effort by citizens, either through their state legislatures or through state referenda, to restore their rights to use marihuana for medical purposes, including their rights to seek medical advice and direction concerning such use, free from federal government interference.