| Photo: The Montana Chronicles |
| Here’s the beginning of making a Phillies Blunt live up to its full potential. |
​The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a Philadelphia law banning the sale of “blunt cigars” in places other than tobacco shops and hotels.
The high court agreed with several cigar companies, ruling that the Philadelphia City Council has no authority to pass such a ban. According to the court’s ruling, only the state can ban blunts, reports Mike Dunn at CBS Philly.
The justices ruled that blunts are covered under the state’s Controlled Substances Act, which preempts local legislation.
| Photo: The Montana Chronicles |
​Councilman Brian O’Neill sponsored the original dumb bill banning blunts back in May 2006, and it was passed unanimously by the spooked council after O’Neill said the product was often misused by pot smokers who emptied out the tobacco and replaced it with marijuana.
Councilman O’Neill — who, unfortunately, is still in office five years later — said he is considering trying to rewrite the measure in a way that might meet the high court’s approval despite the jurisdictional issues.
“The federal government preempts the state, the state preempts the city, but you have to find ways of dealing with it as much as you can, and that’s what I’m trying to do here: find a solution within the parameters and restrictions that are placed on us,” O’Neill said, evidently hoping that if he used enough multisyllabic words, it would cover up his embarrassment of just having had his ass handed to him by the state Supreme Court.
Fellow City Councilman Darrell Clark also worked himself up into a fine froth over the court’s decision.
“I don’t understand why any branch of government — be it the legislative, administrative, or the judicial branch — that is supposed to be in the law enforcement business would allow people to enhance their ability to use illegal drugs,” Clark said, ignoring the fact that blunts don’t “enhance” anything. “It doesn’t make any sense to me.”
The pea-brained measure that was struck down also had outlawed rolling papers and flavored cigars.