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Cannabis and the Law

Marijuana, in all its forms, has enjoyed thousands of years of safe and effective medical use. Physicians in the US were enthusiastic about its use up until the time of its prohibition in 1937. When the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 was instituted, a nationwide effort was undertaken to remove references to the use of cannabis in medicine, and a sweeping campaign based on fear and propaganda was instituted to demonize the cannabis plant and its users.

The Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970 (P.L. 91-513) established the current US practice of scheduling drugs and mandated the inclusion of marijuana and tetrahydrocannabinol, in Schedule I along with heroin and PCP. Drugs such as cocaine, amphetamine, methamphetamine, and most opiates are scheduled in less restrictive categories and thus are considered by law to be less dangerous than marijuana.

Under California Proposition 215, an individual can grow marijuana for his or her own medical use. In addition, clinics and medical cannabis cooperatives can dispense marijuana. Recently, however, federal officials have stepped up arrests. In 2002, Bryan Epis was convicted by federal authorities for providing medical marijuana to a dispensary in California and is serving a mandatory minimum sentence of ten years in a federal correctional institution. During his trial, the jury was not permitted to hear any mention of medical marijuana by the defense, despite the existence of state laws permitting his actions. His 11-year-old daughter, Ashley, has seen her dad only twice since he was imprisoned.

Because of injuries suffered years earlier, and despite the narcotics prescribed to ease his suffering, Mr. Epis was unable to live without excruciating pain until he began using cannabis for its analgesic properties. Once his pain was dramatically reduced, he was able to complete several degrees and begin his family. However, his promising future was cut short because he chose to use, and provide other suffering people with, a herbal remedy.

Notwithstanding an overwhelming majority of support for medical marijuana, only eight states—Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington—currently have laws that permit its use. (See www.mpp.org/legislation/state-by-state-medical-marijuana-laws.html for details of each state’s medical marijuana statutes.) Nowhere in the US is marijuana legal to possess under federal law, and federal agents continue to target medical marijuana dispensaries, even when such organizations are protected by state laws.