This includes the so-called "Kettle Falls 5" - a family of medical users in Washington State now facing trial in February (with a newly appointed judge) and decade-long sentencing mandates for what was essentially a home grow operation for personal use.
This development will also derail federal prosecution of asset forfeiture cases now ongoing in California against state legal and licensed medical dispensaries in Berkeley, Oakland, San Francisco and Orange County. For years, licensed marijuana businesses have been routinely denied defense at trial when charged under federal law because of the Schedule I status of marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act. Thanks to a Supreme Court ruling in the early aughts (that included the vote of now pro medical use and retired Justice Stevens), there had been for over a decade a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that said that the so-called "medical defense" for the violation of federal law was an invalid one.