The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals which covers federal courts in 9 western states just issued an opinion that potentially signals the beginning of the end of the federal government’s war on marijuana. As I have previously blogged here and here and here , the Department of Justice has been defying a Congressional ban on spending funds in ways that interferes with implementation of medical marijuana laws. The continued prosecution by the Obama Administration and the DOJ, of medical marijuana dispensaries and growers in defiance of the Congressional spending ban has set up a potential constitutional crisis.
Today’s ruling clearly slaps down the Obama Administration’s arguments and makes clear that continuing federal prosecutions of medical marijuana dispensaries and growers who are in compliant with state law violates the Congressional spending ban.
The Ninth Circuit remands to the District Court for a hearing on whether the defendants are in compliance. While the defendants had argued that the federal court should not be interpreting state laws and deciding whether growers and dispensaries are in compliance, and that federal prosecutions should be limited to persons acting wholly outside of any state medical marijuana statutes, the remand nonetheless marks a substantial victory for state medical marijuana dispensaries, growers and patients.
Hopefully, the Obama Administration will now recognize they have lost this battle and stop the federal war on medical marijuana.