Posted on 06/06/2005 8:58:28 AM PDT by Tumbleweed_Connection
Federal authorities may prosecute sick people whose doctors prescribe marijuana to ease pain, the Supreme Court ruled Monday, concluding that state laws don't protect users from a federal ban on the drug.
The decision is a stinging defeat for marijuana advocates who had successfully pushed 10 states to allow the drug's use to treat various illnesses.
Justice John Paul Stevens, writing the 6-3 decision, said that Congress could change the law to allow medical use of marijuana.
The closely watched case was an appeal by the Bush administration in a case involving two seriously ill California women who use marijuana. The court said the prosecution of pot users under the federal Controlled Substances Act was constitutional.
"I'm going to have to be prepared to be arrested," said Diane Monson, one of the women involved in the case.
In a dissent, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said that states should be allowed to set their own rules.
Under the Constitution, Congress may pass laws regulating a state's economic activity so long as it involves "interstate commerce" that crosses state borders. The California marijuana in question was homegrown, distributed to patients without charge and without crossing state lines.
"Our national medical system relies on proven scientific research, not popular opinion. To date, science and research have not determined that smoking marijuana is safe or effective," John Walters, director of National Drug Control Policy, said Monday.
Stevens said there are other legal options for patients, "but perhaps even more important than these legal avenues is the democratic process, in which the voices of voters allied with these (California women) may one day be heard in the halls of Congress."
California's medical marijuana law, passed by voters in 1996, allows people to grow, smoke or obtain marijuana for medical needs with a doctor's recommendation. Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington state have laws similar to California.
In those states, doctors generally can give written or oral recommendations on marijuana to patients with cancer, HIV and other serious illnesses.
"The states' core police powers have always included authority to define criminal law and to protect the health, safety, and welfare of their citizens," said O'Connor, who was joined in her dissent by two other states' rights advocates: Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justice Clarence Thomas.
The legal question presented a dilemma for the court's conservatives, who have pushed to broaden states' rights in recent years. They earlier invalidated federal laws dealing with gun possession near schools and violence against women on the grounds the activity was too local to justify federal intrusion.
O'Connor said she would have opposed California's medical marijuana law if she were a voter or a legislator. But she said the court was overreaching to endorse "making it a federal crime to grow small amounts of marijuana in one's own home for one's own medicinal use."
Alan Hopper, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney, said that local and state officers handle 99 percent of marijuana prosecutions and must still follow any state laws that protect patients. "This is probably not going to change a lot for individual medical marijuana patients," he said.
The case concerned two Californians, Monson and Angel Raich. The two had sued then-U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, asking for a court order letting them smoke, grow or obtain marijuana without fear of arrest, home raids or other intrusion by federal authorities.
Raich, an Oakland woman suffering from ailments including scoliosis, a brain tumor, chronic nausea, fatigue and pain, smokes marijuana every few hours. She said she was partly paralyzed until she started smoking pot. Monson, an accountant who lives near Oroville, Calif., has degenerative spine disease and grows her own marijuana plants in her backyard.
In the court's main decision, Stevens raised concerns about abuse of marijuana laws. "Our cases have taught us that there are some unscrupulous physicians who overprescribe when it is sufficiently profitable to do so," he said.
The case is Gonzales v. Raich, 03-1454.
That was in 1937, and they didn't forget. The AMA testified strongly against the criminalization of marijuana, which up until then, was about as common as aspirin is now in the pharmacy, and for much the same reason. When the vote came up in congress, the AMA testimony was not reported before the vote--just Anslinger's diarretic stream of made-up nonsense about how marijuana inspired minority citizens to rape white women.
U.S. Constitution
Article III, Section 2
1. The judicial power shall extend to all cases, in law and equity, arising under this constitution, the laws of the United States
From "Restoring the Lost Constitution,"
…judicial nullification was included within the original meaning of the “judicial power.” Throughout the duration of the Convention no one disputed the existence of a judicial power to nullify unconstitutional laws.
Amendment IX
The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others (rights) retained by the people."
What constitution is Justice Stevens reading?
Is it not a right "retained by the people," of free people, to consume the chemical of their choice, in the quantity of their choce, for the reason of their choice?
Justice Stevens and the majority is so constitutionally incorrect it makes me want to puke.
Why do free people have to beg for their natural rights to be respected and not impugned by the three branches of their federal government that is explicitly prohibited from doing the same?
Does not a "written down" constitution mean anything?
No power of Congress, can usurp the Bill of Rights.
Actually, the nail in the coffin for alcohol prohibition was the stream of testimony, before congress, of mothers who said something like this:
"Before alcohol prohibition, my children had to work very hard to get hold of beer and wine, distilled under federal guidelines, and sold under licensced control by legitimate businessmen who had a reputation to protect, and who could be sued. Under prohibition, my children can buy gin and vodka and rotgut that could easily blind them the first time they try it, from underage deputies of Al Capone, during recess.
Any of that seem vaguely similar to our current problems to you?
"...just Anslinger's diarretic stream of made-up nonsense about how marijuana inspired minority citizens to rape white women."
Another dark time in our society.
Don't know about strawberries, but the federal government can and does regulate homegrown personal use wheat and it was upheld by the Roosevelt Supreme Court as affecting interstate commerce because you wouldn't be buying the name brand at the grocery.
Here is the flaw of logic: The Constitution gave Congress the power to regulate interstate commerce, not things that affect interstate commerce. In theory, Congress could tell you which brand of wheat to buy at the store because your personal choice affects interstate commerce. Welcome to democracy. All your "rights" are subject to vote.
They should make it so strong that just holding it between your fingers would get you high. ;D!
Except that "Prohibition", the War on Alcohol, required a Constitutional Amendment.
Why doesn't the War on Other Drugs require a Constitutional Amendment?
It would appear that the Supreme Court has ruled and your contrarian/loserdopian point[s] are moot.
Bout friggin time!
Where does the insurance money come from?
From higher premiums.
You might as well say "That's what Welfare/Medicare/Medicaid/s for."
Insurance is part of the problem with the current health care system. People are insulated from costs and thus make poor choices. We need to move from the health care system to a market based system.
One thing will change. They won't fall for registering with the gov't, or comply with centrlized distribution methods.
The Supreme Court also ruled, once upon a time, that it was acceptable for one man to own another as property.
Yet more New Deal bs
Interstate Commerce Clause.
Anyone just hear Rush talking about the ICC aspect of the medipot decision? He's a little late to the game ... we libertarians have been crying in the wilderness about Commerce Clause abuses by the feds for years.
I wonder why Rush is on board now, and he mentioned nothing about "dope-smoking, maggot-infested FM types" ... :^)
Perhaps when you've felt the hot breath of Leviathan on your own neck, its just not fun anymore.
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