Can the federal government overturn Oregons law?
The Bush Administration is attempting to use the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA) to overturn the Oregon law. Congress passed the CSA specifically to (1) ban the use and trafficking of illegal drugs and (2) regulate the use of legal narcotics for approved medical purposes. The CSA does not apply to the Death with Dignity Act because the Oregon law specifies only the use of legal narcotics for physician-assited dying. In the United States, it is the states, not the federal government, that licenses physicians and determines what is and is not legitimate medical practice. The Supreme Court case Gonzales v. Oregon represents a unprecedented federal intrusion into state authority to regulate medical practice.
