According to the U.S. Sentencing Commission and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, 99 out of every 100 marijuana arrests in the country are made under state law, rather than under federal law. Consequently, changing state law will have the practical effect of protecting from arrest the vast majority of seriously ill people who have a medical need to use marijuana. Although federal law currently prohibits the use of marijuana, the laws of Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington permit the use of marijuana for medical purposes, and in Arizona doctors are permitted to prescribe marijuana.

States are not required to enforce federal law or prosecute people for engaging in activities prohibited by federal law. Compassion dictates that a distinction be made between medical and non-medical uses of marijuana. The purpose of the medical Marijuana laws is to protect from arrest, prosecution, property forfeiture, and criminal and other penalties, those patients who use marijuana to alleviate suffering from debilitating medical conditions, as well as their physicians, primary caregivers, and those who are authorized to produce marijuana for medical purposes.

The goal of the Medical use laws is to prevent qualified users from being subject to arrest or prosecution for possession, constructive possession, conspiracy or any other offense for simply being in the presence or vicinity of the medical use of marijuana. Additionally, the medical use statutes provide that “No custodial parent, guardian, or person who has legal custody of a qualifying patient who is a minor shall be subject to arrest or prosecution for constructive possession, conspiracy or any other offense for assisting the minor in the medical use of marijuana as authorized” to use and/or possess marijuana under applicable state statute.