A Victory for Medical Pot Patients

By Ann Harrison, AlterNet. Posted December 18, 2003.

Medical marijuana patients won a landmark legal victory Dec. 16 when the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals 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Federal prosecutors have long argued that California's 1996 medical marijuana law, Prop. 215, was superseded by the federal Controlled Substances Act, which outlaws the use or cultivation of marijuana for any purpose.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 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 non-medically, the federal government has no jurisdiction.

The ruling covers the seven states in the Ninth Circuit that have passed medical marijuana laws including Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. California just passed another medical marijuana law, SB420 which goes into effect next year.

The appeals court ruling was prompted by a lawsuit filed in October 2002, by medical marijuana patients Angel McClary Raich and Diane Monson plus Raich's two anonymous caregiver growers. It charged Attorney General John Ashcroft and DEA Administrator Karen Tandy with exceeding their authority by embarking on a campaign of seizing privately grown intrastate medical cannabis from California patients and caregivers. The complaint charges that defendants harassed, arrested or prosecuted patients, mounted paramilitary raids against them, and targeted patients for other civil or administrative actions. In its ruling, the Ninth Circuit remanded the case back to federal district court with instructions to issue a preliminary injunction. The parties in the case have several weeks to appeal the ruling.

If the case is not appealed, the district court will issue the preliminary injunction which protects Raich and Monson from arrest by federal agents. The two women argued that their use of marijuana constituted a medical necessity. Raich says she has an array of serious medical conditions including an inoperable brain tumor and a life threatening wasting syndrome. Monson suffers from a degenerative disease of the spine. Their situation is now similar to the six patients who already receive medical marijuana from the U.S. Government under the FDA's "Compassionate Investigational New Drug Program." Raich says she hopes the ruling in Raich v. Ashcroft sends a message to Attorney General John Ashcroft and DEA agents that their harassment of patients is unconstitutional.

"I am totally ecstatic about what this decision will do not only for me, but for hundreds of thousands of patients across the country," said Raich who hopes it will help other patients with cases pending in federal court. "Not too many people get to come up against someone who is as evil as John Ashcroft and actually win and that feels very good. I have the truth on my side, and it was nice to see the justices of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals care about my life."

The ruling was also a sweet victory for Monson, whose Oroville, California home was raided in August 2002 by federal officials who seized six of her medical marijuana plants. "Diane feels vindicated as a person who suffered through a raid. This is a source of considerable joy to her," said plaintiff's attorney Robert Raich who is also Angel Raich's husband.

According to Robert Raich this is the first time the Controlled Substances Act has been ruled unconstitutional. He says the court based their decision on an interpretation of the Commerce Clause which governs the federal government's ability to control interstate commerce. The court found that the federal government lacked the power under this clause to impose the federal law on plaintiffs.

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