Fw: [asa] Supreme Court to Hear Case on Medical Pot

[Guest guest]

Once again...

I offer no opinion on the smoking of marijuana. I do know how much *MARINOL*

<encapsulated marijuana...medical form, VERY expensive> helped my Dad.

~mk

 

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Hilary

06/28/04 08:29:01

asa

Cc: asastaff; asa-sf

[asa] Supreme Court to Hear Case on Medical Pot

 

Pubdate: Mon, 28 Jun 2004

Source: Associated Press (Wire)

 

SUPREME COURT TO HEAR CASE ON MEDICAL POT

 

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court said Monday it will consider whether sick

people who smoke pot on a doctor's orders are subject to a federal ban on

marijuana.

 

The court agreed to hear the Bush administration's appeal of a case it

lost

last year involving two California women who say marijuana is the only

drug

that helps alleviate their chronic pain and other medical problems.

 

The high court will hear the case sometime next winter. It was among eight

new cases the court added to its calendar for the coming term. The current

term is expected to end this week.

 

The marijuana case came to the Supreme Court after the San Francisco-based

9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in December that a federal law

outlawing marijuana does not apply to California patients whose doctors

have prescribed the drug.

 

In its 2-1 decision, the appeals court said prosecuting medical marijuana

users under the federal Controlled Substances Act is unconstitutional if

the marijuana is not sold, transported across state lines or used for

non-medicinal purposes.

 

Judge Harry Pregerson wrote for the appeals court majority that smoking

pot

on the advice of a doctor is " different in kind from drug trafficking. "

The

court added that " this limited use is clearly distinct from the broader

illicit drug market. "

>

In its appeal to the justices, the government argued that state laws

making

exceptions for " medical marijuana " are trumped by federal drug laws.

 

Congress passed the Controlled Substances Act to control " all

manufacturing, possession and distribution of any " drug it lists, Bush

administration Supreme Court lawyer Theodore Olson wrote.

 

" That goal cannot be achieved if the intrastate manufacturing, possession

and distribution of a drug may occur without any federal regulation. "

 

California's 1996 medical marijuana law allows people to grow, smoke or

obtain marijuana for medical needs with a doctor's recommendation. Alaska,

Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington state have

laws similar to California. Thirty-five states have passed legislation

recognizing marijuana's medicinal value.

 

In states with medical marijuana laws, doctors can give written or oral

recommendations on marijuana to patients with cancer, HIV and other

serious

illnesses.

 

The case concerned two seriously ill California women, Angel Raich and

Diane Monson. The two had sued Attorney General John Ashcroft, asking for

a

court order letting them smoke, grow or obtain marijuana without fear of

federal prosecution.

 

Raich, a 38-year-old Oakland woman suffering from ailments including

scoliosis, a brain tumor, chronic nausea, fatigue and pain, smokes

marijuana every few hours. She said she was partly paralyzed until she

started smoking pot.

 

In 2001, the Supreme Court ruled that members-only clubs that had formed

to

distribute medical marijuana could not claim their activity was protected

by " medical necessity, " even if patients have a doctor's recommendation to

use the drug.

 

Last fall, however, the high court refused to hear a separate Bush

administration request to consider whether the federal government can

punish doctors for recommending the drug to sick patients.