The Founding Fathers must be rolling over in their graves. Under their plan, individuals were to have maximum freedom to make decisions for themselves, and citizens were to retain their power to make most decisions about crime and punishment at the state level. Not so much anymore.

A few weeks ago, federal drug agents raided 11 medical-marijuana centers in Los Angeles County. The U.S. attorney’s office said they violated federal laws against the cultivation and distribution of marijuana.

In doing so, these agents overruled the will of the people of California, who passed a law legalizing the use of marijuana for medical purposes. As Californians saw it, the interests of sick and suffering people outweigh those of drug prosecutors in the case of marijuana. The legislature passed, and the governor signed, the law after plenty of debate and careful consideration.

But federal agents press on anyway, bent on protecting their drug-war turf, or following out the window a preposterous 2005 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that medical marijuana was a federal matter because marijuana could be sold across state borders. As Justice Clarence Thomas, in the minority of the 6-to-3 ruling, warned at the time, “If Congress can regulate this under the Commerce Clause, then it can regulate virtually anything — and the federal government is no longer one of limited and enumerated powers.”

This has resonance locally, since Rhode Island is one of 11 states (with Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington) that have ruled it legal for patients, with their physicians’ approval, to possess and use marijuana, according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

It is terrible for the federal government to devote limited resources to prosecuting this victimless crime, particularly at a time when the country is at continued risk of attack from terrorists. Are there no other crimes that take greater precedence than the use of marijuana by unfortunate patients?

The Founders created a system that lets the individual states try out new ideas, acting as laboratories of government, so that the best practices could be adopted elsewhere. Medical marijuana is one such experiment well worth trying out. It is outrageous that the Bush administration has targeted these experiments, duly approved by state governments, for prosecution and punishment.

Citizens should protest this misuse of power, and Congress should fix this problem by statute.