Pubdate: Wed, 30 Aug 2000
Source: USA Today (US)
Copyright: 2000 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.
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Author: Martin Kasindorf, USA TODAY

MEDICINAL POT USE SET BACK

The U.S. Supreme Court issued an emergency order Tuesday barring an
Oakland, Calif., cooperative from distributing marijuana to members
whose doctors prescribe the narcotic to relieve pain.

The order sends a non-binding but chilling message to 35 other clubs
currently supplying medicinal marijuana to 20,000 Californians under
Proposition 215, a 1996 ballot initiative being challenged by the
Justice Department.

Also placed under a legal cloud Tuesday were similar laws that have
been passed in Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and
Washington state.

Voting 7-1, the court granted the Clinton administration's request to
delay an order by U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco
that makes "medical necessity" a defense to the federal Controlled
Substances Act.

The Supreme Court action prevents the 2,200-member Oakland Cannabis
Buyers' Cooperative from supplying marijuana until further appeals can
be heard.

Jesse Choper, a University of California-Berkeley law professor, says
the order has "substantial significance" in all eight states. He says
the ruling signals that federal law penalizing all marijuana use must
be followed until a final decision is made on the constitutional right
to medicinal use of the substance.

Proposition 215 has aroused the federal government's ire because it
exempts patients from state penalties for growing, possessing and
using marijuana for pain relief on a doctor's recommendation.

The Justice Department sued six San Francisco Bay Area cannabis
cooperatives in 1998, obtaining court injunctions against all. The
Oakland cooperative was the only one to appeal. The 9th Circuit Court
of Appeals reversed Breyer's original ruling against the club.

After Breyer modified his injunction to permit marijuana use under
highly restrictive conditions, Justice lawyers sought emergency help
from Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. She referred the request to the full
court. Justice Stephen Breyer disqualified himself because the trial
judge is his brother.

Writing in dissent Tuesday, Justice John Paul Stevens said the
government "has failed to demonstrate that the denial of necessary
medicine to seriously ill and dying patients will advance the public
interest or that the failure to enjoin the distribution of such
medicine will impair the orderly enforcement of federal criminal statutes."

Jeff Jones, director of the Oakland cooperative, said he was confident
of winning in the Supreme Court when and if the case is heard there.

Contributing: Jessie Halladay
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