Prior to the 1972 Presidential election, Democrat George McGovern said it would only take “twenty-four hours and the stroke of a pen” for him to end hostilities in Vietnam. Today, some people fear that Attorney General-designate Jeff Sessions might effectively end medical marijuana laws in much the same way.
In November 2008, an additional eight states voted to relax their marijuana laws. In Florida, the marijuana “legalization” provision garnered two million more votes than Presidential winner Donald Trump. During his tenure in the United States Senate, Mr. Sessions harshly criticized laws allowing recreational marijuana use. In one speech, he said that “Good people don’t smoke marijuana” and it was a “tragic mistake” to relax state laws in this area.
How We Got Here
Although alcohol arguably has worse short-term effects than marijuana and tobacco is infinitely more deadly in the long term, tobacco and alcohol are mood-altering substances and marijuana is a mind-altering substance. That distinction helps explain why marijuana possession laws first appeared in the 1920s and 1930s. Later, during the 1960s, many people associated marijuana with the counter-culture movement, and almost no one supported legalization.
But time heals all wounds, or at least most of them, and in 1996, California was the first state to pass a medical marijuana law. As support grew during during President Barack Obama’s administration, some decision-makers considered removing marijuana as a Schedule I drug, but intense opposition from law enforcement groups, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, derailed these efforts. Instead, Deputy Attorney General James Cole wrote a memo basically instructing prosecutors not to pursue marijuana cases in states that had contrary laws. Several U.S. Representatives added riders to spending bills to bolster this stance, but House Republicans recently changed the rules to bar such amendments.
Marijuana in Illinois
The Prairie State’s medical marijuana law is probably a “springboard” law because in a few more years, advocates will almost certainly push for recreational legalization based on the (hopefully) trouble-free use of medical marijuana in the state. This has been the pattern in most other jurisdictions.
Also as in other states, Illinois’ Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis law does not “legalize” marijuana, as possession is still illegal. Rather, PA 99-0519 gives some people immunity from state law prosecutions, provided that they have proper prescriptions, valid identification cards, and meet all other requirements. Pragmatically, many law enforcement agencies still make as many marijuana arrests as they did before, and if the defendants qualify for immunity, prosecutors usually dismiss these actions.
Marijuana is also illegal under federal law, and state law immunity is meaningless in federal court. Theoretically then, even if a person had a state law defense under the CUMC law, the full range of penalties in federal court still apply. For this to happen, Attorney General Sessions would simply need to rescind the Cole memo, which would literally require “twenty-four hours and the stroke of a pen.”
All this is pure conjecture at this point, and most conservatives, especially those from the South, have considerable respect for states’ rights. In addition, Mr. Trump recently said that he supported medical marijuana laws “100 percent,” and although he had some personal misgivings about recreational use, he was inclined to defer to the states.
Partner with Experienced Attorneys
No one is exactly sure what effect, if any, the new administration will have on Illinois’ medical marijuana law. For a free consultation with an experienced criminal defense attorney in Schaumburg, contact Glasgow & Olsson. Our firm has a small town atmosphere and access to nationwide resources.
(image courtesy of Get Budding)