Pubdate: Tue, 07 Jun 2005
Source: Wisconsin State Journal (WI)
Copyright: 2005 Madison Newspapers, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.wisconsinstatejournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/506
Author: Gina Holland Associated Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?232 (Chronic Pain)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/walters.htm (Walters, John)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Raich (Raich v. Ashcroft)

MEDICINAL POT USERS CAN BE PROSECUTED, COURT SAYS

Justices Rule That Federal Agents May Arrest Even Sick People

WASHINGTON -- People who smoke marijuana because their doctors recommend it 
to ease pain can be prosecuted for violating federal drug laws, the Supreme 
Court ruled Monday, overriding medical marijuana statutes in 10 states.

The court's 6-3 decision was filled with sympathy for two seriously ill 
California women who brought the case, but the majority agreed that federal 
agents may arrest even sick people who use the drug as well as the people 
who grow pot for them.

Justice John Paul Stevens, an 85-year-old cancer survivor, said the court 
was not passing judgment on the potential medical benefits of marijuana, 
and he noted "the troubling facts" in the case. However, he said the 
Constitution allows federal regulation of homegrown marijuana as interstate 
commerce.

The Bush administration has taken a hard stand against state medical 
marijuana laws, but it was unclear how it would respond to the new 
prosecutorial power. Justice Department spokesman John Nowacki would not 
say whether prosecutors would pursue cases against individual users.

In a dissent, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said the court's "overreaching 
stifles an express choice by some states, concerned for the lives and 
liberties of their people, to regulate medical marijuana differently."

The women who brought the case expressed defiance.

"I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing. I don't really have a choice 
but to, because if I stop using cannabis, I would die," said Angel Raich of 
Oakland, Calif., who suffers from ailments including scoliosis, a brain 
tumor, chronic nausea, fatigue and pain. She says she smokes marijuana 
every few hours.

Diane Monson, an accountant who lives near Oroville, Calif., has 
degenerative spine disease and grows her own marijuana plants. "I'm going 
to have to be prepared to be arrested," she said.

The ruling does not strike down California's law, or similar ones in 
Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and 
Washington state. However, it may hurt efforts to pass laws in other states 
because the federal government's prosecution authority trumps states' wishes.

John Walters, director of national drug control policy, defended the 
government's ban. "Science and research have not determined that smoking 
marijuana is safe or effective," he said.

California's law, passed by voters in 1996, allows people to grow, smoke or 
obtain marijuana for medical needs with a doctor's recommendation. Monson 
and Raich contend that traditional medicines do not provide the relief that 
marijuana does.

California has been the battleground state for medical marijuana. In 2001, 
the Supreme Court ruled in a California case that the federal government 
could prosecute distributors despite their claim that the activity was 
protected by medical necessity.

Two years later the justices rejected a Bush administration appeal that 
sought power to punish doctors for recommending the drug to sick patients. 
That case, too, was from California.
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager