In Victory for Medical Marijuana, Court Tells DOJ to Lay Off Legal Providers

[eridani]

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/10/20/victory-medical-marijuana-court-tells-doj-lay-legal-providers

In a huge victory for the medical marijuana industry in California, a federal court on Monday ruled that the Department of Justice (DOJ) violated the law when it misused an amendment in last year's federal spending bill to prosecute legal dispensaries in the state.

Judge Charles Breyer of the U.S. District Court in northern California handed down a biting decision chastising the DOJ for its twisted interpretation of the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment, which bars the department or the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) from taking legal action against suppliers in compliance with state regulations.

The DOJ instead used the amendment to do exactly that—claiming it only blocks the agency from challenging state laws, but not from going after individuals or businesses—and shut down one of California's oldest dispensaries, the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana (MAMM), in the process.

"It defies language and logic for the government to argue that it does not prevent California from implementing its medical marijuana laws by shutting down these ... heavily regulated medical marijuana dispensaries," Breyer wrote in the decision for MAMM v. USDOJ, which could set a precedent for how the justice system addresses state-legal protection of pot businesses.

Breyer's is the first known ruling by a federal judge to rule in favor of a dispensary under the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment, which was only approved for one year after the spending bill was signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2014, but which is expected to be renewed by U.S. Congress.