Pubdate: Wed, 08 Jun 2005 Source: Fresno Bee, The (CA) Copyright: 2005 The Fresno Bee Contact: http://www.fresnobee.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/161 Cited: Gonzales v. Raich ( www.angeljustice.org/ ) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/opinion.htm (Opinion) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Raich (Angel Raich) THE COURT'S POT SHOT Government should reclassify marijuana for medical use. What a waste of time and a moral blunder for armed federal agents to raid the homes of seriously ill cancer patients to seize medical marijuana. Congress could -- and should -- change how it regulates marijuana, but hasn't. Now the U.S. Supreme Court has added to the craziness by relying on the "commerce clause" of the Constitution to strike down California's medical marijuana law. This is a states' rights issue, and California should have been able to allow the medicinal use of marijuana. The pernicious effects of the so-called war on drugs launched in the 1970s can be seen in the Supreme Court's latest ruling. The court rightly upheld the principle that Congress has the constitutional power to regulate "controlled substances" that may enter the national market. Clearly, the federal government has an interest in preventing drug trafficking. But as a practical matter affecting the lives of real people with debilitating diseases, the 1970 Controlled Substances Act is so draconian in its classification of marijuana that it has put the states in a difficult position. The plaintiffs were Californians Angel Raich and Diane Monson. Raich has a brain tumor and Monson suffers from a degenerative spinal disease. The medicinal pot eases their pain and allows them to make it through each day. Too bad, the court ruled. If you allow medicinal marijuana, the next thing you know Colombian drug lords will be running pot clubs across America. Many studies have concluded that marijuana has therapeutic value for pain relief, control of nausea and appetite stimulation for patients with cancer, AIDS and other illnesses. Yet federal law continues to classify marijuana in the strictest Schedule I category -- along with such drugs as heroin and LSD -- as having "high potential for abuse" and "no currently accepted medical use." Schedule II through Schedule V drugs that have potential for abuse but have "currently accepted medical use" may be prescribed and dispensed under strict control. Incredibly, cocaine is classified as a Schedule II drug, along with methadone and morphine. The 6-3 Supreme Court majority acknowledges this case was especially difficult because "despite a congressional finding to the contrary, marijuana does have valid therapeutic purposes." As the court notes, Congress -- or, as the law allows, the U.S. attorney general in consultation with the secretary of health and human services -- could reclassify marijuana. But neither Congress nor the attorney general has acted. So no one should be surprised that states, including California, have taken matters into their own hands to establish laws assuring the safe, regulated distribution of medical marijuana to seriously ill patients. The court said, however, that this is a national matter and the people may need to pressure Congress to act. Through the democratic process the "voices of voters" allied with patients who rely on medical marijuana "may one day be heard in the halls of Congress." That's small comfort to Angel Raich and Diane Monson, and others who use regulated medical marijuana for personal use under the direction of a doctor. Rather than expend resources harassing ill patients, the U.S. attorney general should reclassify marijuana and subject it to the same strict controls as other Schedule II to Schedule V drugs. Marijuana does not belong in Schedule I. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake