Pot victory
Ninth Circuit Court rules
that the feds can't outlaw personal medical marijuana crops
By Ann Harrison
Medical marijuana patients won a landmark legal victory Dec. 16 when
the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that
the federal government has no constitutional authority to prosecute
two California women for possessing and growing marijuana for their
personal medical use.
Federal prosecutors have long argued that California's 1996 medical
marijuana law, Proposition 215, was superseded by the federal Controlled
Substances Act, which outlaws the use or cultivation of marijuana for
any purpose.
Law enforcement agents have used this reasoning to raid the homes of
and arrest medical marijuana patients and their caregivers. But in a
2-1 decision, the court found that if the marijuana is not purchased,
transported across state lines, or used nonmedically, the federal government
has no jurisdiction. The ruling covers the seven states in the Ninth
Circuit that have passed medical marijuana laws: Alaska, Arizona, California,
Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington.
The ruling did not consider the sale of medical marijuana, which was
not expressly permitted under Prop. 215. The state law has been amended
by Senate Bill 420, which allows caregivers to be compensated for the
cost of growing medical cannabis and goes into effect Jan. 1. The Ninth
Circuit Court is still considering the question of sale and distribution
in another appeal brought by the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana
and the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative.
