Medical marijuana proponents stalled the federal government’s request to shut down six California medical marijuana dispensaries named in a civil lawsuit. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer asked attorneys on both sides of the case to brief a number of issues — including whether Congress properly considered marijuana’s medical uses when it placed the drug in Schedule I — and return to court on April 16.
California NORML Coordinator Dale Gieringer said he felt optimistic after yesterday’s proceedings. “Judge Breyer repeatedly expressed skepticism about the government’s sweeping claims of supremacy in the face of opposition from 56 percent of California voters, the mayors of four cities, and amicus (“friend of the court”) briefs from San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan, the city of Oakland, and the town of Fairfax,” Gieringer said. “Medical marijuana supporters … sense[d] that Judge Breyer was in no way predisposed to granting the government carte blanche to shut down the distribution of medical marijuana.”
Breyer said he had hoped to find a middle ground between California’s law allowing the possession and use of medical marijuana and the U.S. Justice Department’s desire to enforce federal law outlawing the drug. He concluded, however, that he would have to choose sides because “the federal government is not going to change their position.”
“Congress has determined the world is flat,” said attorney William Panzer, who represents two of the clubs named in the federal suit. “This court has the authority to declare the world is round.”
Dave Fratello, spokesman for Americans for Medical Rights — the group that spearheaded the Proposition 215 campaign — emphasized that the federal suit is not a direct attack on California’s medical marijuana law, and said patients may still possess and use marijuana as a medicine regardless of how Judge Breyer rules. “Proposition 215 is now the law of California, and it will remain that way,” he said. “Patients will [retain] the right to use marijuana under a doctor’s order in this state, but how they obtain it could be complicated by this federal case.”
For more information, please contact William Panzer @ (510) 834-1892 or Attorney Tanya Kangas of The NORML Foundation @ (202) 483-8751.
