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2 California counties opposing the medical pot law were shot down by Justices.
San Francisco, CA(JusticeNewsFlash.com)–The United States Supreme Court dismissed an appeal filed by two California counties on Monday. As reported by the Los Angeles Times, San Diego and San Bernardino counties appealed California’s medicinal marijuana use law to the highest court in the nation and lost today. The two California county governments objected to the 13 year-old pot law passed, in 1996 by the state’s voters, under the Compassionate Use Act. The California Supreme Court refused to hear the lawyers for both counties arguments against the California medical marijuana law citing preemption, which prompted them to seek action by the U.S. Supreme Court’s panel.
San Diego County government’s lawyers questioned the federal court whether the California law was preempted by federal law, which says marijuana is a Schedule I drug, has no accepted medical use, and the sale or use of marijuana is illegal. All the other counties in California follow the 1996 state law which requires patients, who need medical marijuana, must obtain a county issued identification card proving they are eligible to have and use pot for medical reasons. San Diego County and San Bernardino County officials have refused to issue the state required cards to suffering patients since 2004, violating California law and the right to legitimate medical care by California consumers. Lawyers for NORML, a medical marijuana advocacy organization, threatened to sue San Diego County, in 2005, for not complying with the California enacted legislation.
California voters passed the 1996 Compassionate Use Act to help sick and suffering patients by allowing medical doctors to prescribe the use of marijuana for medical reasons, typically pain management, where other pharmaceuticals and medical treatments had proven ineffective. Since then medicinal marijuana use in 12 other states was approved into law: Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington with New Hampshire waiting for the governors signature are the current participating states.
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