SF: Oral Arguments in OCBC's Last Appeal

Tuesday, December 4, San Francisco: Oral Arguments in the Last Available
Appeal for the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative

The United States government sued the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Club (OCBC) in
federal civil court and sought to get an injunction that would prohibit it (and
five other dispensing collectives) from distributing medical marijuana. On May
15, 2001, the U.S. Supreme Court decided U.S. v. Oakland Cannabis Buyers
Cooperative . In that
opinion, the Court dealt a blow to medical cannabis patients by declaring that a
person in federal court may not argue that distribution of cannabis to patients
was a medical necessity. The Court was also very adamant in their opinion that
federal law still criminalize the use and distribution of medical cannabis. In
2002, a U.S. District Court in California, executing this opinion, issued a
permanent injunction against the OCBC, prohibiting it from distributing medical
cannabis. However, the 2001 decision specifically left open several questions,
such as constitutional limitations on federal authority, which will be litigated
in the OCBC's pending appeal in the Ninth Circuit.

When: Tuesday, December 4 at 9:00am
Where: U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, James R. Browning United States
Courthouse, 95 Seventh Street in San Francisco

For more information, contact Sonnet [at] AmericansforSafeAccess.org