After Wednesday’s Supreme Court ruling, we are left with the question: Are cannabis abatement administrative penalties, even partially, a form of punishment. If so, then they are fines and it can be argued that they are violating the 8th Amendment. As the United States Supreme Court stated in Austin v. United States (1993) 509 U.S. 602: The purpose of the Eighth Amendment, putting the Bail Clause to one side, was to limit the government's power to punish. The Cruel and Unusu

Local governments have implemented excessive fines to replace criminal prosecutions and maintain the status quo of cannabis prohibition. When cannabis growers are unable to pay the imposed fines, counties place liens on homes and sell them at public auction. This mirrors the use of fines to coerce freed slaves to continue involuntary labor after the Civil War. These abuses led to the Civil Rights Act and the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Today, the U