The U.S. Supreme Court's refusal to review a lower court ruling that California's drug laws took precedence over federal law was seen as a victory for medical marijuana advocates, the Orange County Register reported Dec. 2.

The case under consideration involved police seizure of eight grams of marijuana from Felix Kha during a traffic stop in Garden Grove, Calif. The police refused to return the marijuana after Kha plead guilty to a traffic violation but produced a note from a doctor stating that the marijuana was prescribed for a medical condition.

A judge ordered the return of the marijuana but the city refused, saying that federal and state laws were in conflict since federal law considered marijuana an illegal substance. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to review the subsequent ruling by California's Fourth District Court of Appeal that "it is not the job of local police to enforce the federal drug laws."

"It's now settled that state law-enforcement officers cannot arrest medical-marijuana patients or seize their medicine simply because they prefer the contrary federal law," said Joe Elford, chief counsel at Americans for Safe Access, a medical-marijuana advocacy organization that represented the defendant.

Elford said the ruling clarified law enforcement's obligation to uphold state medical-marijuana laws. "Perhaps in the future local government will think twice about expending significant time and resources to defy a law that is overwhelmingly supported by the people of our state," he said.

However, "The U.S. Supreme Court didn't issue any kind of ruling; it just failed to review a lower-court decision," said Louis Bobak, an attorney representing the city of Garden Grove. "You can't read too much into that fact." Bobak said that the city was obligated to pursue "the legal principle that police shouldn't be put in a position of returning a substance that is contraband under federal law."

The marijuana will be returned to Kha after the ruling is received by the city.