Pubdate: Thu, 28 Mar 2002 Source: San Mateo County Times (CA) Copyright: 2002, ANG Newspapers Contact: http://www.mapinc.org/media/392 Website: http://www.sanmateotimes-ang.com/ Author: Ben Ostapuk Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n480/a07.html Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/ocbc.htm (Oakland Cannabis Court Case) STORY GETS MARIJUANA RULING WRONG IN regard to your article, "U.S. drug policy collides with California's tolerance" (News, March 15), I would like to point out a legal inaccuracy promoted by the federal government and often repeated uncritically by the media, including the Associated Press writer who authored the article. It is unfortunate that the DEA and the federal government get such mileage out of mischaracterizing the legal substance of the Supreme Court's opinion in United States v. Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative on May 14, 2001. Last year's decision in no way impacts California's Proposition 215, or any other state's similar law. The Supreme Court in fact provided good reason for believing that it will strike down Congress' attempt to prohibit California's, or other states', regulation of medical cannabis within its own borders in the appropriate future case presenting that issue. The Supreme Court's decision in United States v. Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative did not, as stated by the Associated Press, hold that "federal anti-drug laws supersede laws allowing medicinal marijuana in Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington." The constitutionality of California's Proposition 215 was not before the court in that case. The court decided the limited question of whether, under federal common law, there was an equitable "medical necessity" defense to a charge under the federal Controlled Substances Act. California's law was not at issue in that decision. This point is clearly made in both the majority's opinion and in the separate concurring opinion. The court's majority stated "(N)or do we consider the underlying constitutional issues today. Because the Court of Appeals did not address these claims, we decline to do so in the first instance." Further limitations on the court's holding are recited in the concurring opinion by Justices Stevens, Souter and Ginsberg -- without whose votes the majority's result in this case could not have been reached. Perhaps most importantly, I direct your attention to footnote seven of the majority's opinion, which concludes, "(N)or are we passing today on a constitutional question, such as whether the Controlled Substances Act exceeds Congress' power under the Commerce Clause." This statement by the Court is of vital importance in light of another Supreme Court case, United States v. Lopez, 514 U.S. 549, 115 S. Ct. 1624, from 1995. In Lopez, the Supreme Court struck down Congress' Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990 as being in excess of Congress' Commerce Clause authority. In essence, the lack of intrastate activity prevented Congress from passing such a law. As the Supreme Court explicitly recognized in the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative decision, exactly the same serious constitutional issue is raised by Congress' attempt to prohibit Californians, or the citizens of any other state, from growing, distributing or possessing cannabis within state borders in accordance with state law. A future medical cannabis case presenting the issue should be decided in accordance with Lopez. I hope that the truth about the Supreme Court's decision in the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative case begins to appear in the media reports covering this issue. Clearly, that decision does not give the DEA its claimed Supreme Court mandate to ignore California -- or any other state's - -- law concerning medical cannabis. It is tragically Orwellian for federal agencies and the media to redefine the content of a Supreme Court decision by fiat. Ben Ostapuk San Francisco. - --- MAP posted-by: Doc-Hawk