Pubdate: Thu, 20 Oct 2005
Source: The Oxford Press (OH)
Contact:  http://www.oxfordpress.com/
Address: Oxford Press, 15 South Beech Street, Oxford, Ohio 45056
Author:  Meghan Meyer, Meghan Meyer writes for the Palm Beach Post
Cited: Gonzales v. Raich ( www.angeljustice.org/ )
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

MOVEMENT FOR LEGALIZATION OF MEDICAL MARIJUANA PUSHES ON

BOCA RATON, Fla. (CNS)- Despite a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that 
many considered a blow to the medical-marijuana movement, supporters of 
such laws have pressed on with state ballot initiatives and lobbying 
campaigns, the director of a marijuana-policy reform group told an audience 
at Florida Atlantic University Wednesday.

Rhode Island is teetering on the edge of becoming the eleventh state to 
allow patients to use marijuana medically, and two Michigan cities have 
medical-marijuana ballot initiatives coming up in the next few weeks, Rob 
Kampia, director of the Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project said.

"If we had won the Supreme Court case, the federal government's war on 
medical marijuana would have effectively been over," Kampia said. "The case 
doesn't change anything. It just maintains the status quo."

The Supreme Court decided by a 6 to 3 vote in June that the federal 
government has the authority to ban using and cultivating marijuana, even 
for patients growing small amounts for their own medical use in states that 
allow it. In the case, Gonzales v. Raich, two California women who grow 
marijuana to treat serious medical conditions sued the government to stop 
enforcement of the federal ban on the drug. The ruling didn't overturn laws 
like California's that allow medical use of marijuana.

Kampia, who spoke to an audience of about two dozen FAU students, became 
involved in the politics of marijuana after he spent three months in jail 
for growing pot while a student at Penn State. His experience made him 
angry, but it was nothing like what other marijuana users endured recently. 
Among the stories Kampia told was one about a quadriplegic man in 
Washington, D.C. who died in custody after he didn't receive the medical 
attention he needed while in jail on marijuana-possession charges.

"DC has bigger problems than a quadriplegic who's using marijuana for 
medical purposes," Kampia said.

The Supreme Court ruling indicated that Congress, not the Court, must 
change the federal law, Kampia said. And his organization has moved closer 
to garnering the 218 votes needed to pass a bill in the House of 
Representatives. A recent vote on an amendment that would have prohibited 
the federal government from spending money to go after medical-marijuana 
users in states where it's legal failed. But the amendment had 161 votes, 
more than ever before.

"We're probably not going to succeed within the year," Kampia said. "but 
the end is in sight."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom