Yes, the 2005 decision by the Supreme Court supports the assertion that federal law trumps state law. So as a practical matter if the federal government enforces the Controlled Substances Act then you could be arrested for medical use of cannabis in Colorado.

However, Holder’s DOJ has made it clear it does not intend to enforce the Act in states in which cannabis is legal for medical use.

In Colorado it is legal by Amendment. Given that the DOJ currently intends to honor local laws it follows that it is effectively legal.

That is, citing the true fact that the CSA is still on the federal books does not stop a resident of Thornton with a prescription from purchasing cannabis from a variety of dispensaries in the Denver area this very week. That is the reality on the ground.

There may be many arguments against allowing medical dispensaries in Thornton but the argument that it is “illegal” just does not hold water at this point.

And in fact the argument made in the article is not that cannabis is illegal but rather that rogue physicians are handing out prescriptions to healthy people.

My original point is that there are laws on the books to handle physicians who abuse the power of prescription. We don’t stop handing out prescriptions for codeine simply because some physicians overprescribe it.

If a physician is abusing his power of prescription then there are known standard means to handle the problem.

Some people are being intentionally dense on this issue because at heart they don’t like the amendment. But let’s not pretend that we’ve never seen rogue physicians handing out too many prescriptions.