On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear a case brought against the state of California by San Diego County, which hasn’t been so thrilled about upholding state laws regarding medical cannabis. As I understand it, this means the lower court’s decision will be upheld, forcing all holdout California counties to comply with state law.

State law allows the use of prescription marijuana for the treatment of certain chronic or terminal illnesses, and requires medical marijuana patients to carry ID cards they can flash to police in case of a raid.

The ruling re-affirms the judicial principle that counties are not required to uphold federal prohibition laws over state medical marijuana laws. Currently, thirteen states allow some form of medical marijuana; five other states are considering medical marijuana laws in the state legislatures.

From The Huffington Post:

The U.S. Supreme Court handed medical marijuana patients and advocates a resounding victory on Monday, refusing to hear a case brought by San Diego County, which has long chafed at implementing statewide medical marijuana laws.

The state of California, in an effort to systematize the 1996 voter-approved initiative, required localities to implement identification card programs for patients with doctor approval in 2004. Such ID cards are required to enter medical marijuana shops in California and can be shown to police officers who find patients in possession of marijuana.

San Diego County, however, argued that the federal ban on marijuana trumps the state law, meaning they are not required to follow the state law. The county filed suit in 2006. Both the San Diego Superior Court and the Fourth District Court of Appeals rejected the argument, which was followed by the California Supreme Court’s refusal to review the case in 2008.

The San Diego Board of Supervisors voted to appeal to the Supreme Court.

“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,” said Joe Elford, chief counsel with Americans for Safe Access (ASA), a national medical marijuana advocacy group with a large presence in California. “No longer will local officials be able to hide behind federal law and resist upholding California’s medical marijuana law.”

Read the whole article here.

Related Articles:

• AG Eric Holder Softens Fed Stance on Medical Marijuana
• Medical Marijuana Turns 10 Years Old
• Marijuana, Cocaine, Psychiatric Drugs, and Hypocrisy

Share

 Printer-Friendly

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 19th, 2009 at 3:27 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.