Maine Marijuana Dispensary Constraint Ruled Unconstitutional (1)

A law requiring heads of Maine medical marijuana dispensaries to be Maine residents violates a US constitutional bar against state laws that substantially burden interstate commerce, the First Circuit ruled.

The Wednesday decision from a divided three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit affirmed a lower court’s ruling on the Maine Medical Use of Marijuana Act’s residency requirement, which applied to dispensary officers and directors.

The panel majority said the law violated the so-called dormant Commerce Clause, an anti-protectionist constitutional restriction that the US Supreme Court has said flows from Congress’s authority to regulate interstate ...