Pubdate: Wed, 15 Oct 2003 Source: Denver Post (CO) Copyright: 2003 The Denver Post Corp Contact: http://www.denverpost.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122 BASE POT LAWS ON SCIENCE We've been known to find fault with some of the zanier rulings of the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. But we were pleased Tuesday when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review a challenge by the Bush administration of a 9th Circuit decision that barred federal drug warriors from punishing doctors who recommended medical marijuana for some patients. Ten states, including California and Colorado, have some sort of medical marijuana laws on their books that allow physicians to recommend that certain patients - such as those undergoing chemotherapy for cancer or taking multiple drugs for AIDS - smoke marijuana to relieve nausea and other symptoms. Proponents of those laws argue that even though the active ingredient in marijuana - THC - has been synthesized, the pills don't work with all patients. Tuesday's rejection of Bush administration's appeal, however, didn't address that medical/scientific question. Rather, it focused on a much narrower issue: whether the feds could revoke the federal prescription licenses of physicians who recommended or even broached the subject of medical marijuana with their patients. The 9th Circuit ruled in 2002 that the government couldn't do that because it blocked discussions between doctors and patients in violation of the First Amendment. Both the Clinton and Bush administrations have claimed that laws permitting medical marijuana harm the war on drugs. The Post, too, has doubts about medical marijuana laws, but our opposition to the amendment Colorado voters passed in 2000 was rooted in how the law was structured and questions about the drug's effectiveness. The feds haven't allowed really meaningful scientific testing to determine exactly how smoked marijuana relieves symptoms. The government has a role in regulating medicine, but decisions on what's effective in treating illnesses should be based on science, not politics. We hope we've come a long way since the 17th century when Galileo had to recant what he knew to be true - that the Earth revolved around the sun. We welcome the high court's action on Tuesday as a step toward rational thought rather than pure emotion. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman