A potentially groundbreaking federal lawsuit brought last summer was dismissed by New York judge Alvin Hellerstein today. The case, brought by five plaintiffs including two children, two veterans and former NFL player Marvin Washington, all of whom use state legal medical cannabis, claimed that the Controlled Substances Act is unconstitutional as it relates to the plant.

The judge ruled that the plaintiffs should have first complied with administrative processes by filing a petition with the Drug Enforcement Administration, and that the case was not appropriate to bring to court. He was sympathetic to the plaintiffs, however, noting that “this decision should not be understood as a factual finding that marijuana lacks any medical use in the United States, for the authority to make that determination is vested in the administrative process.”

He did, however, rule that it was “not irrational” that the Government deemed cannabis dangerous enough to be listed as a Schedule I drug, as it did for heroin and LSD. Statements by former Nixon Administration officials in the 1990s that they knew they were lying about the drugs at the time of the CSA were not considered dispositive, since Congress passed the law.

News reports indicate that the plaintiffs’ attorneys, Mike Hiller, Joe Bondy and Lauren Rudick, may appeal the decision or ask the judge to reconsider. They claim that the petition process would be futile and that there is substantial evidence that the US government has taken actions supporting the notion that there is medical benefit to cannabis.