Medical marijuana legalization likely headed to Supreme Court

[kpete]

Source: Raw Story

An appeals court refused on Tuesday to even consider reviewing evidence to reclassify marijuana due to its medical usefulness, leaving the nation’s largest medical marijuana advocacy group vowing to ask the Supreme Court for a review.

In their ruling (PDF), three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. explained that they did not take up the question of medical efficacy because the suit was otherwise disqualified by a technicality. Attorneys for Americans for Safe Access argued that a petition denied by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in 2011 was denied on “arbitrary and capricious” grounds, which the court took exception to.

That petition, which the DEA sat on for nearly a decade without any action, asked the agency to examine the latest scientific evidence for marijuana’s medical uses and consider changing the drug’s status in the federal register of controlled substances. The DEA considers marijuana to be Schedule I, a classification reserved for drugs like LSD, Peyote and Ecstasy that are considered to have no medical value.


The court noted that the Controlled Substances Act requires a “currently accepted medical use” before the DEA will consider rescheduling any drug. Added, a prior case from 1994 saw the D.C. Court of Appeals approve the DEA’s definition of what is and is not “currently accepted medical use,” stipulating that “adequate and well-controlled studies proving efficacy” must first exist.




Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/01/22/medical-marijuana-legalization-likely-headed-to-supreme-court/

[Pryderi]

1. I don't see it happening. nt

[eggplant]

2. Nobody saw the Berlin Wall falling either.

Sometimes change happens quite abruptly. I'm hoping it happens here, too.

[Comrade Grumpy]

3. This article is messed up.

This was the appeal of the DEA's decision not to grant a formal petition to reschedule marijuana out of Schedule I.

The judges ruled (ridiculously, IMHO) that the DEA's review of the evidence on medical efficacy and its conclusion that it had not been shown was within the law and deferred to the agency.

The lawyers for the plaintiffs are pursuing an en banc appeal to the DC Circuit, and talking about a possible appeal to the Supreme Court.

But this is only the latest federal court decision allowing the federal government to do pretty much whatever it wants when it comes to drug policy. I don't think they would win at the Supreme Court. If change is going to come, it's going to have to come from Congress and the White House.

[davidpdx]

4. I agree

Medical marijuana still has broad support in the states that have passed it (Oregon, Washington, etc). Unfortunately with the way the law is written the judge couldn't do much, thus the change has to come from one of the other two branches. I don't see the issue taking a sharp turn one way or the other in the near future.

[RainDog]

5. I think more states will begin to move toward more liberal laws

that's the momentum - no matter what anyone at the federal level has to say. It's been going on since 1996, at the ballot box and in states.

so, at what point does the federal govt say everyone in the nation thinks their views are not compatible with the people who elect them and those who selected them?

this is starting to look like the federal clown car war on cannabis.

[davidpdx]

7. I still think changes are going to have to be made at the federal level

It wouldn't take that much and I there is always a chance Obama could make the change by executive order. The only problem with that is the minute a Republican takes office it's revoked. It would be one way to at least temporarily solve the problem.

[RainDog]

12. oh, absolutely they need to be made

My remark was about how idiotic the federal govt looks now on this issue. They're parodies of themselves. Every complaint about bureaucracy is evident in the monumental pile of money that goes into supporting the war on cannabis. Cannabis is the money maker for these bureaucracies because the majority of arrests in the "war on drugs" is for SIMPLE POSSESSION.

This is a war on the American people, now.

This is a war to keep bureaucratic positions and salaries justifiable now.

Right now we have a situation in which a couple of bureaucracies in the Federal Govt. have declared war on the American people because the DEA refuses to admit they have been lying for so long.

That's why I say it's like a clown car. Sadly, the administration is on board, it seems. They were during the last administration.

The problem is the federal govt's intractable stance.

That's why I say people will just continue to ignore them and do the work at the state level. Maybe we'll have a civil war over pot. LOL. (really, really just joking) Federal law enforcement fighting against the American people and their state-level law enforcement.

That's what's happening now, actually. The Federal govt has declared war on the American people and no one with the power to do so will stop this.

[Socal31]

6. Headline appears to be wrong.

Marijuana legalization would be challenged by a state V US case, (Colorado, Washington, California), not a re-scheduling case.

Re-scheduling doesn't do much good. Meth and Cocaine are schedule II, and you can wind up doing a good amount of time for those.

I prefer the system here in California, where a real Doctor determines what has medical use and what doesn't, not some DEA testosterone freak.

[Bluenorthwest]

8. Schedule 2 allows States to make laws on their own which is why doctors can prescribe Desoxin

and other amphetamines without arrest. In CA, no doctor writes a prescription for marijuana, lots of them write for amphetamines.

[shanti]

9. what?

in ca, no doctor writes prescriptions for marijuana? that is not true. there are MD's who do this, or did you forget that this is a MM state?

[Comrade Grumpy]

10. They don't write prescriptions, they write "recommendations."

You have to be licensed by the DEA to prescribe medications, and the DEA threatens to take the license of any doctor who prescribes medical marijuana, so the state laws are written for "recommendations."

[Socal31]

13. The doctor's prescription pad is filled out in triplicate.

Schedule II drugs are closely monitored by the DEA, and lots of legitimate Drs. are fearful of prescribing them for fear of being targeted or appearing to be a pill mill.

Go see how hard it is to get prescribed Desoxyn (true government Methamphetamine) or a fentanyl patch by a legit Dr. I don't want the same stigma that those drugs have (although the rightfully have them) to be applied to Marijuana.


There are drugs on Schedule IV that I consider more dangerous than most anything else above it. Benzodiazepines are the devil compared to Marijuana.

Legalization is what is needed.

[nick of time]

11. Good.

This needs to be settled once and for all.

[loyalsister]

14. Honest question

How is this a Constitutional issue?