Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:


After you have finished reading this article you can click here to go back.

US Supreme Court rules against medicinal use of cannabis

RTE News

Saturday 12 Mar 2011

The US Supreme Court has ruled that marijuana may not be legally distributed for medicinal purposes. The court decided that a Californian co-operative had violated federal law, even though state law permitted the practice. The US Supreme Court ruled against the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Co-operative by 8-0. The decision was taken because the US Congress had already determined that marijuana has no medical benefits worthy of an exception.

Medicinal marijuana supporters have expressed outrage at the decision. The President of Common Sense for Drug Policy, Mr Kevin Zeese, said that the federal government was likely to lose when they tried to enforce this decision. However, conservative groups have hit back. The Family Research Council said that the medicinal marijuana supporters were a front for the drug legalisation movement.

"Smoking pot is never sound medicine," said Robert Maginnis, Vice President of the FRC. He added that the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes would create negative consequences that the federal drug laws are designed to prevent.

Californians voted to legalise the medical use of marijuana in the state in a 1996 referendum. Voters in several other states have followed suit, but Washington has vowed to prosecute the medical use of the drug under US federal law. Defenders of cannabis say that it can ease pain in such illnesses as arthritis, AIDS, and advanced states of cancer, and can relieve muscular rigidity for sufferers of multiple sclerosis.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2001/0515/cannabis.html?view=print%3Fview%3Dprint

 

 

 

After you have finished reading this article you can click here to go back. 




This page was created by the Cannabis Campaigners' Guide.

Feel free to link to this page!