U.S. Supremes turn down opportunity to gut California’s medical marijuana protections

The forces that have been working to undermine California’s Compassionate Use Act suffered another legal defeat today – this time from the U.S. Supreme Court.

The nation’s highest court refused to hear an appeal in the case of Garden Grove v. Superior Court of California, et al. In this case, the police department for the City of Garden Grove - in defiance of a court order - refused to return marijuana that an officer had seized from a state-legal medical marijuana patient. In October 2005, the city appealed the court order, arguing that it couldn’t obey state law by returning the marijuana because doing so would amount to a federal crime. The state’s Fourth District Court of Appeals sided with the lower court and ruled that “it is not the job of local police to enforce federal drug laws.”

The city was unhappy with the landmark ruling and took its case all the way to the Supreme Court, which has now officially denied that request for review.

It looks like the debate over whether state and local law enforcement officers (who conduct about 99% of marijuana arrests) need to enforce state-level medical marijuana laws has finally been put to rest.