The Supreme Court ruled Monday that Congress has authority over
state law on the issue of medical marijuana, leaving states that
have legalized marijuana no longer legally able to distribute it,
according to federal law.
The Supreme Court denied medical marijuana users authority to
use the drug, but actual local implementation of the new
legislation has yet to occur.
The issue at hand has nothing to do with the use of medical
marijuana and everything to do with the correct use of state laws
that oppose federal laws, said Russell Korobkin, professor of law
at the UCLA Law School.
“The question before the court is whether the federal law
takes precedence over state law. The federal government says its
laws take precedence because marijuana and other drugs have an
impact on interstate commerce,” Korobkin said.
Due to the fact that commerce is affected, the Supreme Court
ruled in favor of Congress.
“Congress had the power to enact a law that forbids the
medical use of marijuana. The state laws conflicted with
that,” said Paul Bergman, professor of law at the UCLA Law
School.
The Supreme Court had to make a decision as to whose decision
would be upheld. The argument against the legalization of medical
marijuana on the state level was economic.
Before Monday’s rulings, California, along with nine other
states, had decided to make medical marijuana legal on the
intrastate level, according to the Associated Press.
Now, after the actions of the Supreme Court, this is no longer
the case.
Whether or not local authorities will actually prosecute medical
marijuana distributors and users remains to be seen.
Under the Controlled Substances Act, marijuana is an illegal
substance and cannot be used for any purpose. States formerly had
the right to overrule this act when dealing with medical marijuana,
but are no longer allowed.
It remains to be seen whether or not the federal laws will be
implemented on the state level.
“Most law enforcement is at the state level and not the
federal level. As long as medical marijuana is legal in California,
that means that it is unlikely that very many people are going to
be prosecuted,” Korobkin said.
The attention brought from the Supreme Court ruling may be an
important step to the legalization of marijuana on the federal
level.
“Congress must make a firm decision on the actions they
must take on the issue,” Korobkin said.
“Before, all the action was at the state level,”
Korobkin explained. “The longer term trends suggest that
maybe five or ten years from now (legalization of marijuana) may be
a possibility.”
The next step for marijuana advocates is to lobby Congress to
pass a bill for the medical drug’s legalization across the
nation, but this is a gradual process, Bergman said.