U.S. Supreme Court: State Medical Marijuana Laws Not Preempted by Federal Law

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Sat, 06 Dec 2008 10:47:14 GMT  <== Politics ==> 

Americans for Safe Access - the California Supreme Court forbade local law enforcement from enforcing federal law that is inconsistent with state law in a case involving medical marijuana, which is legal in California. The Supreme Court refused to review the case. Bottom line, the feds have to use their own marshals to arrest people who do something which is against federal law, but not against state law. Very good news.

"It's now settled that state law enforcement officers cannot arrest medical marijuana patients or seize their medicine simply because they prefer the contrary federal law," said Joe Elford, Chief Counsel with Americans for Safe Access (ASA), the medical marijuana advocacy organization that represented the defendant Felix Kha in a case that the City of Garden Grove appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. "Perhaps, in the future local government will think twice about expending significant time and resources to defy a law that is overwhelmingly supported by the people of our state."

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