High Court Hears Medical Marijuana Arguments March 30, 2001
News Summary
A skeptical U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments that sick people in California should be allowed to use marijuana for medical purposes, even though the drug is illegal under federal law, the Associated Press reported April 28.The case pits the U.S. government against the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative in California. After California voters approved a 1996 measure that allows marijuana to be used for medicinal purposes, the cooperative began distributing the drug to patients who had medical approval from their physicians.
But the federal government shut down the club, saying that federal law takes precedence over state law.
During oral arguments, several justices appeared unconvinced of the medical-marijuana argument and of the medical-necessity defense as applied to the cooperative, not individual users. Under such a defense, the club's lawyer, Gerald Uelman, argued that a person's need for the drug overrides the law.
"You're asking us to hold that this defense exists with no specific plaintiff before us, no specific case," Justice Anthony M. Kennedy told Uelman.
The Supreme Court is expected to render a decision by June.
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