Medical marijuana patients won a landmark legal victory December 16th when the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the federal government has no constitutional authority to prosecute two California women for possessing and growing marijuana for their personal medical use.

Federal prosecutors have long argued that California's 1996 medical marijuana law, Prop. 215, was superseded by the federal Controlled Substances Act which outlaws the use or cultivation of marijuana for any purpose. Law enforcement agents have used this reasoning to raid and arrest medical marijuana patients and their caregivers. But in a 2-1 decision, the court found that if the marijuana is not purchased, transported across state lines or used non-medically, the federal government has no jurisdiction. The ruling covers the seven states in the Ninth Circuit that have passed medical marijuana laws including Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. California just passed another medical marijuana law, SB420 which goes into effect next year.

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