A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit that was filed last July that would legalize marijuana nationwide.
U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein in Manhattan has rejected the lawsuit and said it must be dismissed because the plaintiffs had not used administrative procedures with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to challenge the ban of marijuana.
Hellerstein said his decision was not to “be understood as a factual finding that marijuana lacks any medical use in the United States.” Instead the judge said the decision to make marijuana legal nationwide is up to the DEA and not with the court.
He deemed the lawsuit “unconstitutional.”
Lawyers of the plaintiffs, which include the parents of two children who rely on marijuana to treat their illness, and former National Football League player Marvin Washington, said they would appear the judge’s decision.
Attorney Michael Hiller remarked, “Resigning the plaintiffs to the petitioning administrative process is tantamount to a death sentence for those patients who need cannabis to live.”
