by Matt Barr

And FBI agents will have sex with your daughter in front of you, too

Jacob Sullum, author of Saying Yes: In Defense of Drug Use, anchors his complaint against Raich to the proposition that now the federal government may outlaw "growing tomatoes in your backyard, crocheting a blanket for your grandchild, or making a birthday card for your mother." As genuine as Sullum's concern seems over his crocheting rights, as I discussed in a post yesterday, Raich simply isn't as remarkable a decision as that.

Your right to make a birthday card for your mother is guaranteed by the First Amendment. Grandma might knit a blanket for baby to spare mom the $9.95 at Target, but not likely, the value is more likely in the making and the making of a gift. Handmade blankets are not fungible, their market value, if any, is not dependent on the market for commercially made blankets (any more than furniture carved by the Amish truly competes with stuff you assemble from a box from Wal Mart), and while this isn't dispositive, the blanket market's impact on the national economy simply isn't what the drug market's is. As for tomatoes, we're in the same boat we were two days ago, thanks to Wickard. Nothing changed yesterday.

Sullum's post has some good points, but the main one, what happens "beyond medical marijuana" because of Raich, or at least beyond drug policy, is overstated.

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