Courtesy of SOURCE:Marijuana.com News
Courtesy of SOURCE:Marijuana.com News
Courtesy of SOURCE:Marijuana.com News
Courtesy of SOURCE: Marijuana.com News
There’s no such factor like a safe harbor for medicinal marijuana shops in Colorado, based on the federal district attorney there.
U.S. Attorney John Walsh on Friday sent instructions to some lawyers representing medicinal marijuana shops in Ft. Collins, saying safe harbor does not exists for such pot shops because marijuana remains illegal under federal law.
A judge has ruled that Montana’s medicinal marijuana law doesn’t shield companies from the drug from federal prosecution, delivering a brand new blow for an industry spinning from the condition and federal attack.
U.S. District Judge Jesse Molloy on Friday ignored a civil suit filed by 14 people and companies which were among a lot more than 24 medicinal marijuana companies raided by federal agents this past year across Montana.
The companies stated the raids violated their constitutional privileges simply because condition law went by voter initiative in 2004 enables these to grow and convey the drug for medical consumption.
Molloy authored in the order the companies could be punished underneath the federal Controlled Substances Act even when they’re following condition law. He reported a 2005 U.S. Top Court decision nevertheless the U.S. Constitution’s supremacy clause is applicable in medicinal marijuana cases.
The supremacy clause states that federal law dominates if there’s any conflict between condition and federal laws.
“Whether the plaintiffs’ conduct was legal under Montana law is of little significance here, because the alleged conduct clearly violates federal law,” Molloy authored. “We are bound by federal law, enjoy it or otherwise.”
The medicinal marijuana seed companies also contended the Justice Department had stated it wouldn’t prosecute them, stating a 2009 agency memo known as the Ogden Memo after its author, Deputy Attorney General David Ogden.
For the reason that memo, Ogden authored that federal prosecutors wouldn’t pursue “individuals whose actions have been in obvious and unambiguous compliance with existing condition laws and regulations supplying for that medical utilization of marijuana.”
Molloy authored that Ogden’s memo wasn’t a totally free pass to create and consume marijuana, and also the memo itself states submission with condition law doesn’t produce a legal defense to violations from the Controlled Substances Act.
“A reasonable person, getting browse the whole from the Ogden Memo, couldn’t conclude that the us government was in some way permitting the development and use of marijuana for medicinal reasons,” he authored.
Carl Jensen, an excellent Falls attorney representing the medicinal marijuana companies, stated Molloy’s ruling should function as a warning with other companies still operating within the condition.
“The supremacy clause has been utilized by the us government to hammer anything they would like to,” Jensen stated. “Absolutely, they must be concerned. If the us government ever decides it really wants to pursue them, it may.”
Timothy Baldwin, another plaintiffs’ attorney, stated he, Jensen as well as their clients were talking about whether or not to appeal the ruling towards the ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
“This is simply too essential for us to not attract the ninth Circuit,” Baldwin stated. “It’s disappointing to determine the way the states have basically paved a path for people to take part in the things they believe is authorized activity, simply to assemble them for federal invasion such as this.”
U.S. Attorney speaker Jessica Fehr stated federal prosecutors didn’t have discuss the ruling.
The government raids in March 2010 placed a chill over Montana’s flourishing medicinal marijuana industry, leading to several companies to shut lower as their inventories have been grabbed or from fear their companies could be next. Several raided companies have pleaded guilty to federal drug charges.
Congress battled this past year to develop an answer for which lots of people perceived as being a business that in those days was growing too rapidly with too couple of rules. The ultimate bill repealed the initial voter-approved law in support of one which targeted to significantly curtail the for-profit medicinal marijuana industry.
That legislative action is presently under legal review, as well as show up on the November ballot for voters to endorse or reject.
Servings of the brand new law happen to be temporarily blocked with a condition judge, however the result is a dramatic decline in the amount of medicinal marijuana patients and companies. There have been 18,012 registered marijuana customers in the finish of December, in comparison to 31,522 in the finish of May, based on the condition Department of Public Health insurance and Human Services.
There have been 395 registered marijuana companies in the finish of December, in comparison to 4,650 in the finish of May.
Several congress meeting Monday in Helena received an update around the ongoing developments. Many accept is as true will again require some kind of legislative action when congress convene in 2013.
Sen. Art Wittich, R-Bozeman, stated the government attack can often mean the condition needs to revisit the way it enables distribution from the drug under its medicinal marijuana law.
“Is there any value in searching only at that question of methods you receive this medicinal marijuana towards the patient who’s legitimately sick?” Wittich stated. “How will we make sure the method is available for those who are sick?”
With intensified apprehension of exploitation from the federal Gov. and after meeting with the original sponsors of the CA Med Marijuana seed Law, A.G. Harris tried to motivate lawmakers to forgo partial actions and to preform meaningful reform to Ca. medical marijuana laws, to both improve the quality of service and simplify the state’s procedure as to implementation of the state’s medical marijuana laws.
In A.G. Harris’s four page memo sent to Senate Pro-Temp — Darrell Steinberg, as well as the Speaker of the Assembly, J. A. Perez, then CC’d: to Mark leno and Tom Ammiano, A.G. Harris went on to state the following:
“California law places a premium on patients’ rights to access marijuana seeds for medical use. In any legislative action that is taken, voters’ decision to allow physicians to recommend marijuana to treat seriously ill individuals must be respected.”
Chief amongst the unsettled problems – A.G. Harris pointed to the need to define” the right to collectively cultivate marijuana seeds”, defining “non-profit” and regulating medical marijuana edibles.
One of the High lights of this memo was that she felt the need to point the representatives to – Article II, section 10(c) of the California Constitution which generally prohibits Legislature from amending voter initiatives, or changing their scope or effect, without voter approval… Sweet!
Some twisted CO. County officials have decided that a scheduled closed door conference with their scared and fearful attorney in order to discuss CO.’s medical cannabis regulations.
County officials have been dead silent in the most recent past on this topic since early summer, when the Pitkin Board of County Commissioners decided to pussy out and not to write any rules governing medical cannabis locally.
The Gov.staffers had spent months ringing their hands and writing useless codes to regulate cannabis grow shops and collective operations. They ditched the plan at the pressing of County Att. J. Ely, who stated that the local government officials “could be” subject to criminal issues under federal drug laws, which still consider medical marijuana illegal.
The vast chasim between state and federal laws for the drug have been a concern to lawmakers, as well as medical cannabis providers. Its medical use was made legal in Colorado by a statewide vote in 2000, and dispensaries have proliferated in the Aspen area since 2009, but federal prohibition has gone unchanged.