The US Supreme Court (SCOTUS) today dismissed challenges to California's Medical Marijuana law by two California counties. Here is the link to the L.A. Times report on this:
http://www.latimes.com/...
There is already a good diary here on DKos that mentions this action by the SCOTUS, see: http://www.dailykos.com/...
But I think the importance of this decision by the Court needs to be emphasized more directly. The spokesperson for the ACLU stated:
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."
So, we have achieved Step One in decriminalizing pot. SCOTUS says state Medicial Marijuana laws are valid.
The L.A. Times reported today that the U.S. Supreme Court rejected appeals from two counties in Southern California that objected to the state's 13-year-old medical marijuana law and claimed it should be struck down as violating the federal drug-control act. The SCOTUS turned down the appeals without comment.
According to the L.A. Times, this 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." The two counties had asserted that the state's authorization for using medical marijuana conflicted with the zero-tolerance policy set by federal law.
Four years ago, the Supreme Court held the federal government had the constitutional authority to regulate the sale and use of marijuana under its power over interstate commerce (Gonzales v. Raich). The Court rejected the claim that personal use of homegrown marijuana was off limits to federal authority, but the court did not rule on whether state laws allowing medical use of marijuana were void because they conflicted with federal law. The Court's ruling rejects the preemption argument that federal law forbids all use of marijuana.
Let's take the next step, since the SCOTUS has put medical marijuana laws on solid state law ground, and advocate for full legalization and taxation of pot. Even if this step will have to go through Congress, it can be pushed through states passing legislation on their own legalizing and taxing pot.