State Medical Marijuana Laws No Protection on Federal Land

A federal law prohibiting use of appropriated funds to interfere with state medical marijuana laws doesn’t apply to marijuana grown on federal land, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held April 5.

Russell Eugene Gilmore and Richard David Hemsley can be prosecuted in federal court for inadvertently growing marijuana on federal land under control of the Bureau of Land Management.

Given the location, it doesn’t matter if the pot was grown in accordance with California’s medical marijuana law, the court said in an opinion by Judge Lynn S. Adelman, sitting by designation from the U.S. District Court ...