First Circuit Rejects Constitutional Challenge to Federal Marijuana Prohibition

In 2005 , in Gonzales v. Raich , the Supreme Court rejected a constitutional challenge to the federal prohibition of the cultivation, distribution, and possession of marijuana .

The challengers had sought to argue that intervening events, including the widescale legalization of marijuana for medicinal or recreational purposes under state law, meant that Raich 's holding no longer controlled, but the First Circuit did not buy it.

Federal drug policy will not be made in the federal courts.