My case went through a jury trial, the appeals court, and the full federal grinder—and the question that remains unanswered, at least for me, is this: can IRS Code 280E, a civil tax rule, become unconstitutionally punitive when paired with a criminal indictment? I took that question all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, and the Court declined to hear it. My appeal argued that denying deductions under 280E was unconstitutional. The Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits excessive bail, excessive fines, and cruel and unusual punishments. This amendment was adopted on December 15, 1791, along with the rest of the United States Bill of Rights…..
In my reflections (and in my book), I keep coming back to the same uncomfortable truth: cannabis legalization didn’t end the war. It rebranded it. Our culture has shifted, but the system won’t. Some day it will need to shift again—because the machine never stops, it just changes uniforms and letterhead.
Posted by FootballOk1144