The U.S. Supreme Court has been asked to address whether federal drug law that criminalizes possession of marijuana invalidates state orders requiring employers and their workers’ compensation insurers to pay for medical marijuana prescriptions for employees injured on the job.
However, before it fully takes on the question, the high court has asked the Solicitor General, who represents the federal government before the high court, for guidance in light of the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution that gives federal statutes primacy over state laws.
Five state supreme courts have addressed whether the reimbursement of medical marijuana costs is permissible, with two ruling yes and three ruling no. The Supreme Court is being asked to resolve this split in authority. Under the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA), the manufacture, distribution, or possession of marijuana is a criminal offense, with the exception of when the drug is part of a Food and Drug Administration research study.
The Supreme Court’s involvement is related to two cases from Minnesota — Bierbach v Diggers Polaris and State Auto/ United Fire & Casualty and Musta v. Mendota Heights Dental Center and — in which injured employees challenged their employers and their insurers for refusing to reimburse them for their medical marijuana prescriptions.
Musta suffered a neck injury in her work at a medical facility while Bierbach was injured in an accident while working for an all-terrain vehicle dealer.
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That 77% is a dramatic increase from the 31% of fentanyl-involved overdose deaths in 2016. The percentage has increased every year since, up to 53% in 2017, 56% in 2018 and 61% in 2019.
In North Carolina, more than 3,300 people died from overdoses in 2020.
… Wonder who is killing our kids and why and whose allowing it?
State Drug Overdose Statistics
There is a wide range of overdose death rates among the states; the highest concentration is located in the Northeast, straddling the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions.
Maryland sees the greatest overdose death rate among all deaths, with 4.68% of annual deaths attributed to drug overdose.
California has the highest number of drug overdose deaths at 6,198.
West Virginia has more drug overdose deaths per capita than any other state (52.8 out of every 100,000 residents).
Nebraska sees the lowest rate of overdose deaths at 0.95%, with 8.7 deaths out of every 100,000 residents.
Wyoming has the lowest number of overdose deaths at 79.
Oklahoma has seen the largest 3-year decrease at an 8.05% annual decline.
Delaware has seen the largest 3-year increase at an annual growth rate of 16.0%.
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Marijuana, although being legal recreationally in Michigan, remains categorized a schedule 1 drug with some opiates, ecstasy LSD and heroin. Marijuana still remains federally illegal and on the DEA controlled substance list through the controlled substance act.
“Cannabis is still a schedule 1 substance. Schedule 1 is the highest, most criminalized on the list of drugs,” said state Rep. Yousef Rabhi, D-Ann Arbor, who sponsored the legislation. “Why? It’s legal, we’re using it medically, there’s adult use in the state that’s been approved by voters and yet we’re still listing it as a schedule 1 substance.”
Michigan law defines a schedule 1 drug as a substance that “has high potential for abuse and has no accepted medical use in treatment in the United States or lacks accepted safety for use in treatment under medical supervision.”
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MACOMB COUNTY, Mich. – Former Macomb County Prosecutor Eric Smith was given a maximum prison sentence of 21 months and was fined $20,000 following his involvement in a criminal enterprise scheme.
Smith, who resigned from his position in 2020 following an investigation into the scheme, will also have to pay $69,900 in restitution and will be on 18 months of supervised release.
The 55-year-old ex-prosecutor pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice charges after he asked coworkers to lie to the FBI during the investigation. He admitted to stealing $75,000 from a campaign fund from 2012-2019.
Smith’s sentencing was delayed due to a separate investigation related to a scheme where he tapped accounts that held money from drunken driving cases, bad check cases and assets forfeited in drug crimes, according to the state attorney general’s office. The alleged scheme dated back to 2012 totaled $600,000.
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Federal law generally prohibits the production, distribution, and possession of marijuana for both medical and recreational purposes. Nonetheless, in recent years, many states have repealed state law criminal prohibitions on some marijuana-related activities, and medical and recreational cannabis businesses now operate openly in some parts of the United States.
In response to the growing disparity between state and federal law, Congress has enacted appropriations legislation prohibiting the Department of Justice (DOJ) from expending appropriated funds to prevent states from implementing their own medical marijuana laws.
Federal courts have interpreted the appropriations rider to prohibit DOJ from bringing criminal drug prosecutions against certain private individuals and entities involved in the state-legal medical marijuana industry, but they have differed as to the scope of conduct the rider shields from prosecution.
This Legal Sidebar first outlines the legal status of marijuana under federal and state law. It then discusses the medical marijuana appropriations rider and analyzes how federal courts have interpreted the provision. The Sidebar closes with key considerations for Congress related to the appropriations rider and the disparity between federal and state marijuana policy more generally.
Federal and State Marijuana Regulation
In recent years, a significant divide has developed between federal and state marijuana law. On the federal side, the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) imposes tringent regulations on the cannabis plant and many of its derivatives. Unless an exception applies, the CSA classifies cannabis and its derivatives as “marihuana.” (The statute uses an archaic spelling; this Sidebar uses the more common spelling, “marijuana.”) Congress classified marijuana as a Schedule I controlled substance when it enacted the CSA, reflecting a legislative determination that the substance has a high potential for abuse, no currently accepted medical use, and “a lack of accepted safety for use … under medical supervision.” Because Congress has made that determination, Schedule I substances may not be dispensed by prescription in compliance with federal law. In contrast, controlled substances in Schedules II through V have accepted medical uses and pose progressively lower risks of abuse and dependence. Unlike substances in Schedule I, those substances may be dispensed by prescription for medical purposes.
Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov LSB10694
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This commentary is by Monica Donovan, CEO and founder of Heady Vermont.
Anews story published by WCAX Nov. 21 said that Brattleboro police are warning Vermonters that “fentanyl-laced marijuana” has been found in our region, and that it caused one person to overdose Saturday. The next day, similar reports were published by the Brattleboro Reformer and MyNBC5.
I felt an immediate need to address this headline, its potential consequences on public health and its negative impact on cannabis legalization.
The truth is, fentanyl-laced weed is a myth and a frequent scare tactic used by law enforcement. Fentanyl is far more expensive per gram than cannabis — and a grower gains nothing by killing their customers. It’s just bad business, don’t you think?
Buzzfeed called the fentanyl-laced cannabis myth “the hardiest urban legend of the U.S. overdose crisis,” a well-deserved title for a fallacy routinely perpetuated by state and federal officials, shared constantly by law enforcement and amplified regularly via local news.
This myth has been debunked on Snopes and addressed by a number of larger news and advocacy organizations, including High Times, Forbes and Filter Mag.
In the case of this local news story published Nov. 21, the patient told police they “hadn’t taken any opiates, only smoked marijuana,” a claim that sounds dubious at best. The police claim that the pot tested positive for fentanyl, but a great deal more context and information is needed to verify that fentanyl was intentionally added to a batch of cannabis before it was distributed to buyers.
While we’re endlessly grateful to WCAX for its coverage of the Vet’s Day Cannabis Giveaway, we also want to encourage all local media outlets to at the very least provide some context when republishing a scare-tactic bulletin from local police.
This careless approach contributes to misinformation about cannabis and sets back our efforts to educate the general public, who may not have as much understanding about the complexities and nuances of the relationships between law enforcement, the war on drugs and the consequences for Vermonters.
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