Ashcroft: Theology Over Democracy in Drug War

AlterNet - LA CityBeat -- Medical pot is legal in some form in nine states, but only California activists have been the victims of the administration's moral agenda.

"The Bush administration would like to have patients locked away in prison until they die of whatever disease their doctor recommended the marijuana for. They've never attacked Prop 215 or any of the laws from the eight other states. The Supreme Court hasn't overruled it. Instead, they've gone after patients. This is his so-called 'compassionate conservatism.'"

It's not just pot laws. Jordan points out that the Bush Administration has also actively blocked state laws regarding consumer protection, financial privacy, the environment, and gun control. In Oregon, John Ashcroft has worked feverishly – and openly – to undermine a voter-approved assisted suicide law. "What we have right now is not a nation governed by the will of the people," says Brenda Grantland, an attorney for Judy Osburn. "But one in which the few elected political leaders decide what the law is. It doesn't matter what the voters say. It's not a democracy, it's an oligarchy."