A federal court has dismissed a lawsuit from major marijuana companies that sought to block the government from enforcing prohibition against their in-state activities.
In a filing on Monday, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts’s Western Division said that while the there are “persuasive reasons for a reexamination” of the current scheduling of cannabis, its hands were effectively tied by past Supreme Court precedent dictating the federal government’s authority to regulate controlled substances even within state borders.
Accordingly, Judge Mark G. Mastroianni, an Obama appointee, granted the Justice Department’s motion to dismiss the case.
He wrote that “the relief sought is inconsistent with binding Supreme Court precedent and, therefore, beyond the authority of this court to grant,” adding that the plaintiffs “do not provide a basis for this court to disregard the broad reading of the Commerce Clause.”
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