Attorneys representing major cannabis companies in a lawsuit against the U.S. government filed their opening brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit on Tuesday, part of an ambitious effort to block the enforcement of federal cannabis prohibition against their state-legal activities.
Lawyers argue in the filing that Congress has in recent decades "dropped any assumption that federal control of state-regulated cannabis is necessary," essentially shirking the federal authority confirmed by a 2005 Supreme Court opinion, Gonzales v. Raich. That, they conclude, means "the [Controlled Substances Act's] ban as applied to state-regulated cannabis cannot be upheld today."
"In the nearly twenty years since Raich, Congress has enacted legislation demonstrating that it no longer seeks to control comprehensively, let alone ban, all cannabis commerce," the brief contends, asserting lawmakers have "abandoned" their "former goal of eradicating cannabis from interstate commerce."
"Congress has abandoned its goal of eradicating cannabis and has, in fact, expressly exempted it from federal enforcement in certain circumstances," it says, pointing to policies embodied in the congressional budget rider that prevent federal funds from being used to interfere with state-legal medical cannabis or lawmakers' decision to allow cannabis legalization to proceed in the District of Columbia.
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