The Compassionate Coalition

Justices reject appeals from San Diego and San Bernardino counties seeking to throw out the state marijuana law. Patients likely will be able to seek ID cards showing they're eligible to use the drug.

By David G. Savage
10:24 AM PDT, May 18, 2009
Source: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-court-marijuana19-2009may19,0,4902661.story

Reporting from Washington -- The Supreme Court rejected appeals today from two hold-out counties in Southern California that object to the state's 13-year-old medical marijuana law and claimed it should be struck down as violating the federal drug-control act.

Without comment, the court turned down the pair of appeals.

The action likely will clear the way for patients in San Diego and San Bernardino counties to seek county-issued identification cards that show they are eligible to possess and use marijuana.

These identification cards have been required under state law since 2004, but the two counties have refused to issue them. Their lawyers had asserted the state's authorization for using medical marijuana conflicted with the zero-tolerance policy set by federal law.

"Our theory is that a state law which authorizes people to violate federal law is preempted" and, therefore, unconstitutional, Thomas Bunton, a deputy county counsel in San Diego, said last week.

Federal officials have continued to insist that all use of marijuana is illegal, even in states such as California. However, Atty. Gen. Eric Holder said recently that the federal government will not devote great effort to prosecuting low-level marijuana cases.

Lawyers for San Diego and San Bernardino counties had gone to court seeking a clear ruling on whether the state law violated the federal drug law. San Diego NORML, a marijuana advocacy group, had threatened to sue the county in 2005 for not complying with the state law by refusing to issue identification cards.

Last year, a state appeals court upheld the California medical marijuana law and said it was not rendered void by the federal drug law. The California Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from the two counties.

However, both counties appealed to the Supreme Court, but their appeals were dismissed today.

Graham Boyd, director of the ACLU's Drug Reform Law Project, said today's order "marks a significant victory for medical marijuana patients and their advocates nationwide." It dispels any remaining doubts that the state laws are valid, he said, and it "leaves ample room for states to move forward . . . with independent medical marijuana policies."

Since California's voters adopted the Compassionate Use Act in 1996, 12 other states have approved measures permitting medical use of marijuana. The others are Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. The New Hampshire Legislature passed a similar measure recently that awaits action by the governor.

The federal government, however, has continued to insist that the sale or use of marijuana is illegal under the Controlled Substances Act. This 1970 law designates marijuana as a Schedule I drug that has "no currently accepted medical use" in the United States.

Federal authorities also have asserted they can arrest and prosecute all those who use or sell marijuana in California and other states that have authorized medical use of the drug.

Four years ago, the Supreme Court ruled that Congress and the federal government had the constitutional authority to regulate the sale and use of marijuana under its power over interstate commerce. The 6-3 decision, in the case of Gonzales versus Raich, rejected the claim that personal use of homegrown marijuana was off limits to federal authority. But the court did not rule then on whether the state's law allowing medical use of marijuana was void because it conflicted with the federal drug-control law.

In its appeal, San Diego county's lawyers had questioned whether the California law authorizing medical use of marijuana "is preempted under the Supremacy Clause" of the Constitution by the federal law forbidding all use of marijuana.

david.savage@latimes.com