Supreme Court refuses to hear case on seized medical marijuana – Los Angeles Times
More than three years after Garden Grove police seized a small amount of marijuana from a chronic pain patient, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to consider the city’s argument — which divided California’s major law enforcement organizations — that it should not have to give the drugs back.Advocates cheered the development as a step forward for medical marijuana users to get their “medicine” back from police.
Police pulled over Felix Kha, a Garden Grove resident, in June 2005 for a traffic violation and found him in possession of one-third of an ounce of marijuana.
Though Orange County prosecutors dropped drug charges after a doctor confirmed that the cannabis was for medical use, police refused to return the drugs on the grounds that to do so violated federal drug distribution laws.
A judge in Orange County Superior Court sided with Kha, ordering the police to return his marijuana. But the city again refused and instead appealed to California’s 4th District Court of Appeal. The court of appeal also sided with Kha, declaring that patients enjoy a federally protected property right to their medical marijuana.
Garden Grove argued that such a right doesn’t exist since federal law makes marijuana possession illegal in almost all circumstances, and asked the California Supreme Court to look at the case, but in March the court refused.
Now, the U.S. Supreme Court’s refusal to review the decision brings the case to a close.
This is a fantastic development. The California courts decided that it’s not up to state and local police to enforce federal law, and the US Supreme Court have let the decision stand. We should note that refusing to hear the case doesn’t mean the Supremes agree with the California courts, it just means they’re not going to waste their time on the issue. If all the appellate state courts agree, the Supreme Court usually doesn’t get involved.
That said, it bodes well for the thirteen medical marijuana states and for efforts in other states. Law enforcement always likes to argue that marijuana is against federal law – they do so in California regarding medical marijuana ID cards and they did so in Michigan regarding passing medical marijuana this year.
That argument is now toast.
