United States v. Schostag, No. 17-2530 (8th Cir. 2018)
Annotate this CaseThe Eighth Circuit affirmed the district court's modification of defendant's terms of his supervised release to include a standard condition explicitly prohibiting the use of medical marijuana. The court held that the district court correctly concluded that defendant's use of marijuana, even for medical purposes, contravenes federal law. The court reasoned that, although some medical marijuana was legal in Minnesota as a matter of state law, the state's law conflicted with federal law. Therefore, the district court had no discretion to allow defendant to use medical marijuana while on supervised release. The court also held that the district court did not abuse its discretion in modifying defendant's terms of supervised release to provide clarifying language accurately depicting federal law.
Court Description: Melloy, Author, with Shepherd and Grasz, Circuit Judges] Criminal case - Sentencing. The district court did not err in modifying the terms of defendant's supervised release to include a standard condition explicitly prohibiting the use of medical marijuana; while some medical marijuana is legal in Minnesota as a matter of state law, Minnesota's law conflicts with federal law and federal law must prevail under the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution; accordingly, the district court had no discretion to permit defendant to use medical marijuana while on supervised release.
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