Supreme Court to Hear Medical Marijuana Case

2004-07-07

By Bob Roehr

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to rule on whether federal authorities can override state law when it comes to medical marijuana. The news came June 28 in the final days of this session and the appeal likely will be heard early next year.

Federal officials have continued to prosecute medical use of marijuana in California and elsewhere despite the enactment of state laws that allow and regulate medical use of marijuana. They have justified it under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) that classifies marijuana as a dangerous drug and have said that federal authority to regulate interstate commerce overrides state law.

Last December a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court ruled in Raich v. Ashcroft that “the intrastate, noncommercial cultivation, possession and use of marijuana for personal medical purposes on the advice of a physician-is, in fact, different in kind from drug trafficking ... . Further, the limited medical use of marijuana as recommended by a physician arguably does not raise the same policy concerns regarding the spread of drug abuse.”

“The cultivation, possession, and use of marijuana for medical purposes and not for exchange or distribution is not properly characterized as commercial or economic activity,” the 2-1 majority wrote. Therefore, “The CSA, as applied to the facts of this case, is unconstitutional under the Commerce Clause.”

The legal reasoning drew heavily upon a 1995 interstate commerce opinion penned by U.S. Supreme Court Justice William H. Rehnquist, which limited federal authority in that arena.

Attorney General John Ashcroft appealed the Raich decision April 20. The Supreme Court ruling, when it comes, will either strike down those legal protections now afforded citizens of the states covered by the Ninth Circuit, or extend it to the entire country.