By: Joe Elford, Americans for Safe Access
After years of wrangling in the Court of Appeal, medical marijuana patients, on August 18, 2010, obtained a published decision affirming that federal law does not preempt California law regarding medical marijuana collectives. Dissatisfied with this outcome, numerous law enforcement organizations, including: five former DEA Administrators, the Drug Free America Foundation, and the California State Sheriff’s Association, along with numerous cities and counties, filed requests for the California Supreme Court grant review and reach an opposite conclusion. On Thursday, this came to and end, as six of the seven Justices of the California Supreme Court voted to decline review.
This denial of review bodes well for medical marijuana patients, as there are now at least four published decisions affirming that federal law does not preempt California’s medical marijuana laws. This has been an argument made by numerous localities to avoid abiding by California’s medical marijuana laws. Although this latest decision does not officially put the matter to rest, it signals that the California Supreme Court does not seem to buy the federal preemption argument. Chalk one up for the patients.
