Excerpted from ASA's 2007 California Legal Manual, this article discusses the federal government's legal stance on medical marijuana and the conflict between federal and state law.

The CSA places all substances that are regulated under existing federal law into one of five schedules. This placement is based upon the substance's medicinal value, harmfulness, and potential for abuse or addiction.

This paper, prepared in 2002 by Judy Appel & Daniel Abrahamson of the Drug Policy Alliance, explains that state law enforcement officials have an obligation to uphold state law, not federal law.