Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Over Marijuana At Border Checkpoints

LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) — A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit asking the court to stop U.S. Border Patrol from seizing medical marijuana at highway checkpoints near the southern border. The Deming Headlight reports (http://bit.ly/2aYlRlw ) that Raymundo Marrufo of Deming filed the lawsuit in fall 2015. Marrufo said says there are no dispensaries in Deming and he must go to Las Cruces to fill his prescription forcing him to pass through a checkpoint with a drug-sniffing dog on the way home. District Judge William P. Johnson granted the Border Patrol's request for a dismissal in April. He said Marrufo's argument for the injunction didn't have legal grounds but left room for the case to be re-filed in another form. Vivian Moore, the executive director of a non-profit dispensary, says the ruling is "unfair" because it leaves the status quo unchanged.