Pubdate: Mon, 26 Mar 2001
Source: Wisconsin State Journal (WI)
Copyright: 2001 Madison Newspapers, Inc.
Contact:  PO Box 8975,  Madison, WI 53708-8975
Website: http://www.wisconsinstatejournal.com/
Author: Michelle Locke

HIGH COURT PUTTING POT TO THE TEST

Justices Will Rule If Marijuana Has Legal Value As Pain Reliever

A few years ago, an author writing about death asked ailing AIDS 
patient Michael Alcalay how he was accepting dying.

"I'm not accepting it," Alcalay retorted.

Alcalay is alive today thanks in part, he believes, to judicious 
doses of marijuana, the unorthodox medical approach endorsed by 
California's Proposition 215.

On Wednesday, Alcalay will be in the audience as lawyers try to 
convince the Supreme Court that federal anti-drug laws shouldn't 
prevent marijuana from being given to seriously ill patients for pain 
relief.

"Once the justices recognize what's really at stake in this case, if 
any semblance of justice prevails then so will we," says attorney 
Robert Raich, who is representing the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' 
Cooperative.

The cooperative is a distribution club operating under California's 
Proposition 215, the voter-approved law that allows the possession 
and use of marijuana for medical purposes on a doctor's 
recommendation.

That's where Alcalay used to get his marijuana. But he's had to look 
elsewhere since the federal government sued the cooperative and five 
other California pot clubs in 1998 to prevent them from distributing 
the drug.

A federal judge sided with the government, But last year, the U.S. 
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that "medical necessity" is a 
legal defense.

California officials, including Attorney General Bill Lockyer, argue 
that the state has the right to enforce its medical marijuana law, 
which was approved by voters in 1996. Distribution clubs sprang 
because Proposition 215 is silent on how patients will get marijuana, 
outside of growing and harvesting it themselves.

The Supreme Court is not looking directly at Proposition 215, but 
rather at whether medical necessity may be used as a defense against 
federal drug bans. It's unclear whether the justices will rule on 
that general issue or rule more narrowly on how lower courts have 
handled this case.

If the court says "Yes" to the necessity defense, it could make it 
easier to distribute medical marijuana in California and the eight 
other states with similar laws -- Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, 
Arizona, Maine, Nevada and Colorado.

Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer has recused himself because 
he is the brother of Charles Breyer, the federal district judge who 
ordered the club to stop distributing marijuana.

The club remains open, but only to sell legal hemp products and 
maintain a membership database.

Justice Department lawyers declined to comment on the case. They have 
argued that allowing clubs to hand out marijuana compromises the 
government's ability to enforce federal drug laws.

Advocates say marijuana is a reliable and nontoxic therapy that in 
some cases is the only relief for suffering people.

That point of view was endorsed recently by the Institute of 
Medicine. The institute, which was asked to examine the issue by the 
White House drug policy office, said that because the chemicals in 
marijuana ease anxiety, stimulate appetite, ease pain and reduce 
nausea and vomiting, they can be helpful for people undergoing 
chemotherapy and people with AIDS.

Institute officials also warned that smoking marijuana can cause 
respiratory disease and recommended development of forms of the drug 
that could be taken in other ways.

Alcalay, a 59-year-old physician who serves as the club's medical 
director, started using marijuana medically to keep down his pills 
after he was diagnosed with HIV in the 1980s. HIV turned into AIDS 
and in the mid-'90s Alcalay almost died after he picked up an 
intestinal bug that ran roughshod over his weakened immune system.

Although he lost 35 pounds off his 165-pound, 5-foot-10 frame he said 
small doses of marijuana helped make meals palatable. "I don't like 
getting stoned. I like to be in control," he says.

"He credits marijuana with keeping him alive until the advent of 
drugs that boosted his immune system and wiped out the intestinal bug.

Alcalay didn't make it into the book about dying.

Recently he ran into the author.

"He was surprised to see me," Alcalay says with a laugh.
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MAP posted-by: Kirk Bauer