The sooner this election is over the better although of course things could just get a lot worse.
Marijuana Moment
Ten Republican governors are arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court that the “flexibility” states have generally been afforded to legalize marijuana in spite of federal prohibition is an example of why they should also have the right to ban gender-affirming medical care for youth.
In an amicus curiae brief submitted to the court on Tuesday, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (R) and nine other GOP governors made multiple mentions of state-level cannabis laws. If states have been able to set their own marijuana policies even as cannabis remains federally criminalized, that same standard should be applied to transgender healthcare laws, they said.
The brief was submitted in the case United States v. Skrmetti, which was raised by three transgender youth and their families who sued the state of Tennessee over a law banning gender-affirming care, including the prescription of treatments such as puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy, for transgender minors.
“On medical marijuana, the States have addressed the topic in conflicting ways,” the governors said. “Some States have legalized medical marijuana… A different group of States now allows people to possess marijuana for any reason…despite the Controlled Substances Act… Meanwhile other States continue to prohibit any use of marijuana.”
“Just as States have the flexibility to regulate on medical marijuana, vaccines, and abortion, they may choose how to approach transgender medical procedures for children,” the governors said. Cannabis, vaccines and abortion are examples of “the States’ well-established practice of legislating on contentious medical questions.”
McMaster was joined in the brief by the GOP governors of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Utah.
Read the full report
20241015123549820_23-477 US v Skrmetti Brief for Amicus Curiae
