How do state medical marijuana laws work?
Because 99% of marijuana arrests are made at the state level, well-written state medical marijuana laws effectively protect patients, despite federal hostility. In states without effective medical marijuana laws, patients are treated as criminals. They may face an insufficient supply of medicine due to its prohibition-inflated price or scarcity; impure, contaminated, or chemically adulterated marijuana from the underground market; arrests, fines, court costs, property forfeiture, incarceration, probation, loss of financial aid for education, loss of employment, and criminal records.
Because 99% of marijuana arrests are made at the state level, well-written state medical marijuana laws effectively protect patients, despite federal hostility. In states without effective medical marijuana laws, patients are treated as criminals. They may face an insufficient supply of medicine due to its prohibition-inflated price or scarcity; impure, contaminated, or chemically adulterated marijuana from the underground market; arrests, fines, court costs, property forfeiture, incarceration, probation, loss of financial aid for education, loss of employment, and criminal records. Don’t state-level medical marijuana laws put states in violation of federal law? There is no federal law that mandates that states must enforce federal laws against marijuana possession or cultivation. States are free to determine their own penalties — or lack thereof — for drug offenses. State governments cannot directly violate federal law by giving marijuana to patients, but states can refuse to arrest p
