Prescription Proscription

Today the U.S. Supreme Court announced it will hear the Justice Department's appeal of a 9th Circuit ruling that declared medical marijuana use, when permitted by state law, to be outside the scope of the Commerce Clause and therefore beyond the federal government's authority to prohibit. At stake is whether the Drug Enforcement Administration will be allowed to resume its harassment of patients and caregivers in states that allow medical use of cannabis. The case is also a test of how serious the Court is about rediscovering the constitutional distinction between local and national matters.