A Massachusetts House-Senate joint committee effectively killed a proposal to legalize medical marijuana, the Milford Daily News reported March 4.

The Public Health Committee referred the bill for study, essentially derailing the measure for the current legislative session. Lawmakers said they needed to examine the bill in light of a U.S. Supreme Court decision saying that federal drug laws trump state medical-marijuana legislation.

"It was about the Supreme Court decision," said committee chair Rep. Peter Koutoujian (D-Waltham), who said committee members didn't "even really get to the issue of whether it should be allowed or not, because it was against the federal law and Constitution." 

Still alive, however, is a separate bill that would decriminalize marijuana possession, which is now before the Senate Ways and Means Committee.