The U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) has rejected a request to hear a case on the legality of establishing safe injection sites where people can use illicit drugs in a medically supervised environment.<\/p>\n
The justices announced<\/a> on Tuesday that they decided against taking up the case raised by the nonprofit Safehouse, despite the pleas of attorneys general from 10 states and D.C.<\/a> who recently filed amici briefs urging the court\u2019s involvement.<\/p>\n Representatives from 14 cities and counties, as well as the mayor of Philadelphia, which is at the center of the current case, also filed briefs in support of the case in recent days.<\/p>\n Safehouse was set to launch a safe consumption site in Philadelphia before being blocked by a legal challenge from the Trump administration. It filed a petition with the nation\u2019s highest court in August<\/a> to hear the case.<\/p>\n But while the Supreme Court declined to take action\u2014and the Biden administration passed up its voluntary opportunity to weigh in at this stage<\/a>, which may well have influenced the justices\u2019 decision\u2014activists say the battle will continue at a lower federal court level, where the administration will have to file briefs revealing its position on the issue.<\/p>\n Disappointed but not surprised U.S.\u00a0Supreme Court declined to hear our case. We\u2019re pursuing our claims in federal court.\u00a0As that litigation proceeds, Biden administration will have to take a\u00a0position, which it avoided by waiving its right to respond to our Supreme Court petition.<\/p>\n \u2014 Safehouse (@SafehousePhilly) October 13, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n \u201cWe were disappointed that the government chose not to respond to our petition,\u201d Safehouse Vice President Ronda Goldfein told<\/a> Filter. \u201cThey said, \u2018We\u2019re going to waive our right to respond,\u2019 [and] the Supreme Court declined to review our case. Ordinarily that sounds like the end of the road\u2014but in our case we are still pursuing our claims in a different venue.\u201d<\/p>\n That venue will be the the federal district court in Philadelphia, where activists plan to submit multiple arguments related to religious freedom and interstate commerce protections. The Biden administration will be compelled to file a response in that court by November 5.<\/p>\n \u201cIf they don\u2019t respond, they lose,\u201d Goldfein said.<\/p>\n A coalition of 80 current and former prosecutors and law enforcement officials\u2014including one who is President Joe Biden\u2019s pick for U.S. attorney of Massachusetts\u2014previously filed a brief urging the Supreme Court to\u00a0take up Safehouse\u2019s safe injection case<\/a>.<\/p>\n Fair and Justice Prosecution, the group that coordinated the amicus brief, also\u00a0organized a tour of Portugal for 20 top prosecutors<\/a>\u00a0in 2019 so they could learn about the successful implementation of the country\u2019s drug decriminalization law.<\/p>\n If the Supreme Court were to have taken the case and rule in favor of Safehouse, it could have emboldened advocates and lawmakers across the country to pursue the harm reduction policy.<\/p>\n The governor of Rhode Island signed a bill in July to\u00a0establish a safe consumption site pilot program<\/a>\u00a0where people could test and use currently illicit drugs in a medically supervised environment. It became the first state in the country to legalize the harm reduction centers. It\u2019s not clear whether the Department of Justice will seek to intervene to prevent the opening of such facilities in that state.<\/p>\n Massachusetts lawmakers\u00a0advanced similar legislation last year<\/a>, but it was not ultimately enacted.<\/p>\n A similar harm reduction bill in California, sponsored by Sen. Scott Wiener (D), was approved in the state Senate in April, but further action has been delayed until 2022.<\/p>\n Florida Democratic Candidates For Governor Fight Over Who Supports Marijuana Reform The Most<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post Supreme Court Won\u2019t Hear Case On Legalizing Safe Drug Consumption Sites, But Activists Are Undeterred<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) has rejected a request to hear a case on the legality of establishing safe injection sites where people can use illicit drugs in a medically supervised environment. The justices announced on Tuesday that they decided against taking up the case raised by the nonprofit Safehouse,Continue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50499"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50499"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50500,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50499\/revisions\/50500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\n
\n
\nRead More: Supreme Court Won\u2019t Hear Case On Legalizing Safe Drug Consumption Sites, But Activists Are Undeterred<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"