Source: Iuliia Bondar / Getty
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas isn’t holding back when it comes to letting the nation know his thoughts on federal marijuana laws.
In a statement, issued after the court declined to hear a medical marijuana dispensary’s appeal regarding tax breaks given to other businesses, Thomas expressed his disapproval.
“A prohibition on interstate use or cultivation of marijuana may no longer be necessary or proper to support the federal government’s piecemeal approach,” he wrote, according to NBC News. “Federal policies of the past 16 years have greatly undermined its reasoning. The federal government’s current approach is a half-in, half-out regime that simultaneously tolerates and forbids local use of marijuana.”
NBC News notes 36 states now allow medical marijuana, while 18 allow recreational use. “But federal tax law does not allow marijuana businesses to deduct their business expenses,” the site adds.
“Under this rule, a business that is still in the red after it pays its workers and keeps the lights on might nonetheless owe substantial federal income tax,” Thomas went on, concluding the federal government’s “willingness to look the other way on marijuana is more episodic that coherent.”
What are your thoughts on his statement and how the federal government has been handling the legalization of cannabis? Chime in.
