Well, the Dems can't blame conservatives for this....
Patients who use marijuana fear worst if forced to stop
Posted 6/6/2005 11:35 PM Updated 6/6/2005 11:52 PM
By Joan Biskupic, Wendy Koch and John Ritter, USA TODAY
usatoday.com
Relying on a 1942 ruling that permitted government restrictions on local wheat farming, the majority said Congress may regulate purely intrastate activities — such as the personal growing of marijuana — if it finds that failing to regulate them would harm the U.S. government's ability to regulate the commodity.
Stevens was joined in the majority by Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer.
Dissenting were two conservatives, Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Clarence Thomas, and Sandra Day O'Connor, who is usually at the political center of the divided court. The dissenters said states should have the right to set their own course in dealing with medical marijuana.
O'Connor said the majority was giving the federal government far too much authority. "The government has made no showing in fact that the possession and use of homegrown marijuana for medical purposes, in California or elsewhere, has a substantial effect on interstate commerce," she said.
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