A federal judge has granted the government’s motion to dismiss marijuana legalization opponents’ lawsuit challenging a new Trump administration initiative to cover up to $500 worth of hemp-derived products each year for eligible Medicare patients. The program being implemented by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) focuses largely on CBD but also allows a certain amount of THC in products.
Judge Trevor N. McFadden ruled on Friday that prohibitionist groups and activists, led by Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM), as well as a cannabis-focused biopharmaceutical corporation MMJ International Holdings and its subsidiaries, “have not established standing to bring this case.”
“Each claims an injury too abstract or too remote to open the courtroom doors,” he said.
“At the outset, the Court notes that it need not tackle the bulk of questions that Plaintiffs raise in their motions,” McFadden wrote. “That is because Plaintiffs’ case suffers from a fatal flaw: the failure to establish Article III standing to bring their claims. The Court addresses only this jurisdictional hole and will dismiss the entire suit and deny Plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction as moot.”
In April, lawyers for Health and Human Services Sec. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and CMS Director Mehmet
Read full article on Marijuana Moment
