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Judge: Medi-Pot Law Not in Conflict With Federal Prohibition
San Diego, Calif., Superior Court Judge William Nevitt has issued a tentative ruling that rejects a lawsuit brought by San Diego Co. supervisors – joined by officials in San Bernardino and Merced Cos. – arguing that the state’s medi-pot law is trumped by federal anti-pot law, thus exempting county officials from having to comply with the measure.
Contrary to the county officials’ position, Nevitt ruled that the state’s medi-mari law, which legalizes pot use and possession by seriously ill patients, does not run afoul of federal pot prohibition, as codified in the Controlled Substances Act, because the state law (Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act, passed in 1996) does not “require” Californians to engage in “conduct that violates federal law,” he wrote. Rather, the CUA declassifies the possession and use of marijuana by qualified medi-pot patients as a crime only under state law – thus barring police action under state law, but leaving open the ability of police to enforce federal pot law. If all the state medi-pot law does “is remove penalties for the medicinal use of marijuana from California’s drug laws,” Nevitt wrote, then “there is no ‘positive conflict’ between federal and ‘State law so that the two cannot consistently stand together,’” as county officials argued.
Contrary to the county officials’ position, Nevitt ruled that the state’s medi-mari law, which legalizes pot use and possession by seriously ill patients, does not run afoul of federal pot prohibition, as codified in the Controlled Substances Act, because the state law (Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act, passed in 1996) does not “require” Californians to engage in “conduct that violates federal law,” he wrote. Rather, the CUA declassifies the possession and use of marijuana by qualified medi-pot patients as a crime only under state law – thus barring police action under state law, but leaving open the ability of police to enforce federal pot law. If all the state medi-pot law does “is remove penalties for the medicinal use of marijuana from California’s drug laws,” Nevitt wrote, then “there is no ‘positive conflict’ between federal and ‘State law so that the two cannot consistently stand together,’” as county officials argued.