Opinion ID: 3047693
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: California’s Compassionate Use Act of 1996

Text: California voters passed Proposition 215 in 1996, which is codified as the Compassionate Use Act of 1996 (“Compassionate Use Act”). See Cal. Health & Safety Code § 11362.5. The Compassionate Use Act is intended to permit Californians to use marijuana for medical purposes by exempting patients, primary caregivers, and physicians from liability under California’s drug laws. The Act explicitly states that its purpose is to ensure that seriously ill Californians have the right to obtain and use marijuana for medical purposes where that medical use is deemed appropriate and has been recommended by a physician who has determined that the person’s health would benefit from the use of marijuana in the treatment of cancer, anorexia, AIDS, chronic pain, spasticity, glaucoma, arthritis, migraine, or any other illness for which marijuana provides relief. 3032 RAICH v. GONZALES Id. § 11362.5(b)(1)(A). Another purpose of the Compassionate Use Act is “[t]o ensure that patients and their primary caregivers who obtain and use marijuana for medical purposes upon the recommendation of a physician are not subject to criminal prosecution or sanction.” Id. § 11362.5(b)(1)(B). The Compassionate Use Act strives “[t]o encourage the federal and state governments to implement a plan to provide for the safe and affordable distribution of marijuana to all patients in medical need of marijuana.” Id. § 11362.5(b)(1)(C). To achieve its goal, the Compassionate Use Act exempts from liability under California’s drug laws “a patient, or . . . a patient’s primary caregiver, who possesses or cultivates marijuana for the personal medical purposes of the patient upon the written or oral recommendation or approval of a physician.” Id. § 11362.5(d). FACTUAL & PROCEDURAL HISTORY Appellant Angel McClary Raich is a Californian who uses marijuana for medical treatment. Raich has been diagnosed with more than ten serious medical conditions, including an inoperable brain tumor, a seizure disorder, life-threatening weight loss, nausea, and several chronic pain disorders. Raich’s doctor, Dr. Frank Henry Lucido, testified that he had explored virtually every legal treatment alternative, and that all were either ineffective or resulted in intolerable side effects. Dr. Lucido provided a list of thirty-five medications that were unworkable because of their side effects. Marijuana, on the other hand, has proven to be of great medical value for Raich. Raich has been using marijuana as a medication for nearly eight years, every two waking hours of every day. Dr. Lucido states that, for Raich, foregoing marijuana treatment may be fatal. As the district court put it, “[t]raditional medicine has utterly failed [Raich].” Raich v. Ashcroft, 248 F. Supp. 2d 918, 921 (N.D. Cal. 2003). RAICH v. GONZALES 3033 Raich is unable to cultivate marijuana for her own use. Instead, Raich’s caregivers, John Doe Number One and John Doe Number Two, cultivate it for her. They provide marijuana to Raich free of charge. They have joined this action as plaintiffs anonymously in order to protect Raich’s access to medical marijuana. This action arose in response to a law enforcement raid on the home of another medical marijuana user, former plaintiffappellant Diane Monson.1 On August 15, 2002, Butte County Sheriff’s Department deputies, the Butte County District Attorney, and agents from the federal Drug Enforcement Agency (“DEA”) came to Monson’s home. After DEA agents took control of Monson’s six marijuana plants, a three-hour standoff between state and federal authorities ensued. The Butte County deputies and district attorney concluded that Monson’s use of marijuana was legal under the Compassionate Use Act. The DEA agents, after conferring with the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California, concluded that Monson possessed the plants in violation of federal law. The DEA agents seized and destroyed Monson’s six marijuana plants. Fearing raids in the future and the prospect of being deprived of their medicinal marijuana, Raich, Monson, and the John Doe plaintiffs sued the United States Attorney General and the Administrator of the DEA in federal district court on October 9, 2002. The suit sought declaratory and injunctive relief. Specifically, plaintiffs-appellants argued: (1) that the Controlled Substances Act was unconstitutional as applied to them because the legislation exceeded Congress’s Commerce Clause authority; (2) that through the Controlled Substances Act, Congress impermissibly exercised a police power that is reserved to the State of California under the Tenth Amendment; (3) that the Controlled Substances Act unconsti- 1 Plaintiff-Appellant Monson withdrew from this action on December 12, 2005. 3034 RAICH v. GONZALES tutionally infringed their fundamental rights protected by the Fifth and Ninth Amendments; and (4) that the Controlled Substances Act could not be enforced against them because their allegedly unlawful conduct was justified under the common law doctrine of necessity. On October 30, 2002, the plaintiffs-appellants moved for a preliminary injunction. On March 4, 2003, the district court denied the motion by a published order. See Raich v. Ashcroft, 248 F. Supp. 2d 918. The district court found that, “despite the gravity of plaintiffs’ need for medical cannabis, and despite the concrete interest of California to provide it for individuals like them,” the appellants had not established the required “ ‘irreducible minimum’ of a likelihood of success on the merits under the law of this Circuit.” Id. at 931. On December 16, 2003, we reversed and remanded this matter to the district court to enter a preliminary injunction. See Raich v. Ashcroft, 352 F.3d 1222, 1235 (9th Cir. 2003). We held that the plaintiffs-appellants had demonstrated a strong likelihood of success on the merits of their claim that the Controlled Substances Act, as applied to them, exceeded Congress’s Commerce Clause authority. See id. at 1234. We did not reach plaintiffs-appellants’ remaining arguments in favor of the preliminary injunction. See id. at 1227. The Government timely petitioned the Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari. The Supreme Court granted certiorari on June 28, 2004. See Ashcroft v. Raich, 542 U.S. 936 (2004). On June 6, 2005, the Supreme Court vacated our opinion and held that Congress’s Commerce Clause authority includes the power to prohibit purely intrastate cultivation and use of marijuana. See Gonzales v. Raich, 125 S. Ct. at 2215. The Court remanded the case to us to address plaintiffsappellants’s remaining legal theories in support of a preliminary injunction. See id. On remand, Raich renews her claims based on common law necessity, fundamental rights protected by the Fifth and Ninth Amendments, and rights reserved to RAICH v. GONZALES 3035 the states under the Tenth Amendment. She also argues for the first time that the Controlled Substances Act, by its terms, does not prohibit her from possessing and using marijuana if permitted to do so under state law. We have jurisdiction over this interlocutory appeal under 28 U.S.C. § 1292(a)(1). STANDING & STANDARD OF REVIEW [1] To satisfy the requirements of constitutional standing, “the plaintiff must have suffered, or be threatened with, an actual injury traceable to the defendant and likely to be redressed by a favorable judicial decision.” Mujahid v. Daniels, 413 F.3d 991, 994 (9th Cir. 2005) (citing Spencer v. Kemna, 523 U.S. 1, 7 (1998)). Furthermore, the injury must be: (1) concrete and particularlized, and (2) actual or imminent, not conjectural or hypothetical. See United States v. Antelope, 395 F.3d 1128, 1132 (9th Cir. 2005). [2] We are convinced that the requirements of constitutional standing have been met here.2 Although Raich has not suffered any past injury, she is faced with the threat that the Government will seize her medical marijuana and prosecute her for violations of federal drug law. The threat posed by deprivation of her medical treatment is serious and concrete: Raich’s doctor testified that foregoing medical marijuana treatment might be fatal. The threat is not speculative or conjectural: DEA agents previously seized and destroyed the medical marijuana of former plaintiff-appellant Diane Monson. Monson’s withdrawal from this action does not change the fact that DEA agents have — and may again — seize and destroy medical marijuana possessed by gravely ill Californians, including Raich. Finally, it is clear that Raich’s threatened injury may be fairly traced to the defendants, and that a favorable injunction from this court would redress Raich’s threatened injury. 2 We also note that the Supreme Court did not question constitutional standing in this case. See Gonzales v. Raich, 125 S. Ct. 2195. 3036 RAICH v. GONZALES A district court’s decision regarding preliminary injunctive relief is subject to limited review. See Harris v. Bd. of Supervisors, 366 F.3d 754, 760 (9th Cir. 2004). The court should be reversed only if it abused its discretion or based its decision on an erroneous legal standard or on clearly erroneous findings of fact. See id. A preliminary injunction must be supported by findings of fact, reviewed for clear error. See Hawkins v. Comparet-Cassani, 251 F.3d 1230, 1239 (9th Cir. 2001). The district court’s conclusions of law are reviewed de novo. See Brown v. Cal. Dep’t of Transp., 321 F.3d 1217, 1221 (9th Cir. 2003).