Pennsylvanians for Medical Marijuana

United States Supreme Court

The most recent Supreme Court decision on medical marijuana was Raich v Gonzales, which ruled the DEA could arrest and confiscate marijuana plants that two women were growing for their own medicinal use. This ruling has been propagated by the anti-marijuana factions as the death knoll of medical marijuana. It is no such thing. It is a very narrow ruling based specifically on the Commerce Clause, the Clause in the constitution dealing with transportation of merchandise across state borders.

There have been many times in this countries history when the Supreme Court has ruled not for justice and truth but for 'political correctness'. This is another such case.

Totally ignoring precedent, the Supreme Court ruling in this case extends the reach of the federal government into your private yard garden under the pretense of protecting the marijuana market from unfair competition.

They ignore the fact the marijuana market is unregulated and act as though it was regulated like canned soup, or lettuce, or widgets, or other legal items. With this ruling the Supreme Court has OK'd the scenario where anybody in any state can object to your growing a particular brand of tomato in your garden so long as they distribute said tomato somewhere in the United States. The government will have the authority, an authority it does not have without this ruling, to come to you and charge you with violation of the Commerce Clause. Nothing could be more based not on evidence, but on 'political correctness', than this ruling.

This will not be the final word. There are dozens of medical marijuana cases making their way up the court system now. Most of them have won and are in the appeal process.

This is not the end all case it was made out to be. If Justices Roberts and Alito are as attuned to Federalist principles as has been claimed hopefully the Roberts Court will rule for state rights, state sovereignty in the upcoming cases.

Law Review Articles

Following are links to six law review articles emphasizing the fallacies, anti-drug bias, and political correctness of the US Supreme Court's Raich v. Gonzales ruling.