‘No Medical Use’ for Pot, Justices Say

Excerpts from the Supreme Court’s ruling in United States vs. Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative:

“Whereas some other drugs can be dispensed and prescribed for medical use . . . the same is not true for marijuana. Indeed, for purposes of the Controlled Substances Act, marijuana has no currently accepted medical use at all.”

“Congress has made a determination that marijuana has no medical benefits worthy of an exception. The statute expressly contemplates that many drugs have a useful and legitimate medical purpose and are necessary to maintain the health and general welfare of the American people . . . but it includes no exception at all for any medical use of marijuana.”

“Under the Cooperative’s logic, drugs that Congress places in Schedule I could be distributed when medically necessary whereas drugs that the attorney general places in Schedule I could not. Nothing in the statute, however, suggests that there are two tiers of Schedule I narcotics. . . . On the contrary, the statute consistently treats all Schedule I drugs alike.”