Supreme Court action upholds medical marijuana law
Published: May 18, 2009
Updated 6 months ago
The Supreme Court refused to hear a case Monday contesting California’s medical marijuana law, in a win for medicinal marijuana advocates.
The case involved two California counties that contested a measure allowing medical marijuana, which was approved by voters in 1986. Lower courts have sided with advocates for medical marijuana.
San Diego and San Bernadino counties have fought state laws which require counties to issue medical marijuana ID cards. They argued that the state law allowing marijuana was at odds with federal drug laws.
“The courts have made clear that federal law does not preempt California’s medical marijuana law and that local officials must comply with that law,” Joe Elford, chief counsel with Americans for Safe Access (ASA), a national medical marijuana advocacy group, said in a release. “No longer will local officials be able to hide behind federal law and resist upholding California’s medical marijuana law.”
San Diego’s argument rested on a claim that local police must enforce federal law and therefore couldn’t abide by the voter-approved measure. But the federal government has never posited that municipalities themselves are responsible, Grimm says.
The Supreme Court’s decision dovetails with an Obama Administration policy of relaxing federal enforcement of drug laws in California. Previously, federal agents regularly took part in raiding medical marijuana clubs.
Ten California counties have now been ordered to implement the ID card program: Colusa, Madera, Mariposa, Modoc, Mono, San Bernardino, San Diego, Solano, Stanislaus and Sutter.
Marijuana was approved for medical use in an effort to ameliorate the pain of chronically- and teriminally-ill patients.
Medicinal use of marijuana is legal in thirteen US states: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.
It’s also legal for medical use in Canada, Austria, the Netherlands, Spain, Israel, Finland and Portugal.
Correction: An earlier version of this article said that medical marijuana is legal in New Jersey. It is not, though legislation has passed the state senate.
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These two counties DA’s should be seriously ashamed of themselves. To insist that people be allowed to suffer and die because of federal law is just plain mean and nasty. The voters of your state have said to you “ALLOW THIS”, and YOU decide to go against them? I think the voters should tell YOU to go rot at their next opportunity.
Such mean spirited authoritarian BS is the lowest. I hope these idiots get something that can be dealt with by use of a plant. Maybe then they would get a sense of propriety about this.
I would really like to hear from these scumbags just who it is that they think they are helping with this kind of nonsense. Whose lives are they improving by wasting taxpayer dollars in these useless, anti HUMAN attacks on a plant? Who are they saving? This is just nonsense, and it’s about time the SCOTUS did the right thing and refused to hear such stupid, useless cases.
The voters of these counties should remember that this doesn’t happen for free. They have been paying for this stupidity, over 10 YEARS after it was passed. It’s time to send these morons packing.
California may abide by the laws of the land or secede. There is no higher court. The South learned the lesson of the almighty FEDERAL govt. under the Lincoln dictatorship. (..i know you have been brainwashed to believe he is a hero complete with D.C. statues but he is responsible for the deaths of millions of Americans, that is unforgivable to me.)
All States that want to be a part of this country should abide all Federal laws that are “within the rights of the Federal Government to enact”. Prohibition on cannabis is not, it’s an abuse of the Interstate Commerce clause, and the Fed is overstepping their bounds and not protecting anyone, they are discriminating and abusing people.
I agree, they can leave if they don’t want to be abused by a government gone off the rails.. Or, they can tell the Federal Government to step the fuck back and get off their rights.. they have THAT right, too.
I’m so sick of holier than thou Aholes that want to decide for me how and what I can do and when I can do it. If you have never suffered from the after effects of chemo or any drug that’s supposed to make your recovery/death easier than shut the hell up. I don’t tell you when to take your Midol or Pamprin so shut the Fuck up and let me live, let those that are in constant pain live with some peace and dignity. You have no clue yet YOUR GOD tells you this isn’t natural. Well bud (no pun intended), your GOD and my GOD and everyone’s GOD created the weed that helps a lot of us live and eat and enjoy what’s left of a life and if you don’t like it, tough shit pal, get over it. I’m not trying to make weed legal and I personally don’t give a rat’s ass whether Snoop or M&M or any celebrity is making a bid for legal weed, that has nothing to do with medicinal so stop pointing to legalizing. I’m in it to relieve pain and to eat, deal with it!!
Sorry Natty, Lincoln was not a dictator. He was duly elected by both the North and the South prior to the Civil War.
If you check your history, American history, you will find that between 617,000 and 700,000 died from combat and disease.
We are sorry that you are angry about the inevitable, legalization of Marijuana. Your argument is not helped by throwing out invalid statistics and characterizing a great and troubled leader by comparing him to dictators. He did not undertake the Civil War lightly and he anguished over all the deaths. Read the Gettysburg address. remember a ” House divided ” quote?
I am concerned that we are again becoming a house divided, when Texas and other states threaten Succession….Alan
As for the scotus, ruling. Here is a good one for the legal eagles.
They ruled that local police cannot enforce federal laws, be them marihuana or Immigration!!! I quote, “San Diego’s argument rested on a claim that local police must enforce federal law and therefore couldn’t abide by the voter-approved measure. But the federal government has never posited that municipalities themselves are responsible.”
Not quite, the court said that State Law trumps Federal Law in this case. The Federal Government has not “mandated” that States go after cannabis, they simply call it a controlled substance. That means, in any given State, if they chose to control it in a specific way, they have that right; so long as it’s controlled.. At least, that’s how I read it.
Unless and Until the Federal Government can show/prove that that cannabis is crossing State lines, they don’t have much to stand on.. You DO realize that the Federal level of interference is all based on the “interstate commerce” provision of the Constitution, right? That means, as long as a State doesn’t allow their cannabis to be legally moved out of their State, the Fed technically has no jurisdiction.. it’s not interstate commerce, it’s simply something the State does.
This all started because some greedy bigot piece of shit in the 1930s wanted to protect profits while abusing the rights of immigrants. Cannabis had no _valid_ reason to be made a controlled substance, other than the fascists wanted to “control certain populations and fortunes”.
“Without comment, the court turned down the pair of appeals.”
That’s not a ruling. They refused to hear the cases. Quite different.
Without comment, we’re left to fill in the blanks.
I’m guessing they see a wave of drug law reform coming and decided the timing wasn’t right to for them examine Federal/State policy conflicts. The public is doing it already.
Tell me, Natty what ever happened to state citizenship? How about States rights? Do you even know what rights you have as a state citizen Vs Federal?
Speak up. or look it up.
Is it legal for municipal police to enforce federal laws, or do they just like the taste of the money?
Take back your country, America.
Put the police in their place.
this is the medical mj issue. Everyone knows that “medical” mj was an end around play to get pot legalized. You think Snoop Dog is rapping about his help with cancer pains? no. It is absurd on its face, but…the states rights issue is key. The PEOPLE voted and the will of the people needs to be respected. If I were a California gov., congressmen, senator, or anything I would be raising hell about this slap to the face of states rights. Of course honest people like me are not politicians. No abraham i have no idea what you are talking about but sinceI know right and wrong I don’t think I need to look anything up…..as alam alakim.
It’s funny how you keep spewing bullshit painted as fact when the real facts show you to be full of shit.
“medical” is what it was _mainly_ used for before the 1930s. Were others using it for “other” reasons? yes, of course. But DOCTORS were prescribing it for a whole host of symptoms, and “modern research” is proving over and over WHY it worked (not just that it did!).
That you’re so simple (on this and seemingly many other issues) as to think this is “a ploy to legalize” in the face of various facts shows how smart people should take your posts and opinions.. as those of a superstitious fool who “feels things” and wants those “feelings” to be the dictate for everyone else’s reality. NO THANKS.
Yes, there are people that “want it legalized”, and they have GOOD REASONING on their side.. and they are fighting MORONS who have no sound reasoning on their side [to keep it illegal]. ONE of the “good reasons” is that it is a GREAT medication for MANY ills. If that’s what resonates with the MORONS who want to keep it illegal [withno sound reasoning], then of COURSE people will jump on that bandwagon.. it doesn’t diminish the validity of that wagon, though!
San Diego and San Bernadino counties were deeply in debt at the time the imbecile county legislators initiated this extremely expensive lawsuit. Now these counties, having spent millions on this when you add up all the legal hours, are even more gravely in debt.
This all happened because a few right wing religious extremists on a power trip in these county governments decided that they had the right to oppose the Democratically arrived at decision that the voters of California made. These fools held that their moral beliefs trumped the will of the citizens.
Well, Justice was served and they lost. Now, a civil countersuit should be filed on behalf of the citizens of these counties, against the imbecile legislators, to recoup the money that they cost the counties.
They’ll all be moralizing and gasping for breath from their swooning couches re medical marijuana until either they or a family member needs the weed to mitigate pain. Then, of course, an exception MUST be made post haste for them. I’m exhausted with republicunt culture wars. Their political sideshows belong at a backwater state fair or better yet within the confines of a traveling carnival. It’s hard to face the fact that the new century/millennium has started out as a totalitarian shift to the right with an Orwellian backdrop. Strange staging for even stranger days to come.
The “pot is the devil weed” mentality runs very deep. I would bet that even should pot be legal next week, there would still be red necks cops harrassing people for pot in very serious ways. Many would cry that it’s the end of society as we knew it. Well, it is anway so let’s end the GD prohibition and all act like adults for a change. Thankyou.
Wow - The Roberts-led Court actually did the right thing. Shocking …
So do municipalities have to be authorized to enforce federal law?