Pubdate: Thu, 09 Jun 2005 Source: Providence Journal, The (RI) Copyright: 2005 The Providence Journal Company Contact: http://www.projo.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/352 Author: M. Charles Bakst Note: M. Charles Bakst is The Journal's political columnist 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 (Raich v. Gonzales) SUPREME COURT, LEGISLATORS, AND MARIJUANA The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the federal government can prosecute sick people for using marijuana even though their doctors prescribe it and their states allow it. An unfortunate ruling. I've never tried marijuana. I don't romanticize it or want it to be widely available. But I do seek relief for people suffering from cancer, MS and other insidious diseases. In reading about the court decision, I'm dismayed that the legal debate focuses so much on things like the Interstate Commerce Clause. What about compassion for human beings? Congress should take a hint from the court and pass a law that supports medical use of marijuana. Last year, Rep. Patrick Kennedy voted for a proposal to bar use of federal funds to prosecute medical marijuana use in states that permit it. The measure failed. He is poised to vote for it again. Kennedy says in a statement, "People who can benefit from the medicinal qualities of marijuana in a controlled manner should be able to access it. The challenge is for state health departments and doctors to decide what is a medicinal purpose." But Rep. Jim Langevin voted against the proposal and remains unpersuaded. He wants to see a consensus in the medical community. So far, he says, "The benefit of using marijuana for medical purposes, according to many experts, does not outweigh the risks." Prospects that the Senate will approve legislation in support of medical use of marijuana are even more remote. Aides to Senators Jack Reed and Lincoln Chafee portray them as, respectively, opposed and reluctant. The state Senate on Tuesday passed a bill that would make Rhode Island the 11th state to provide for medical use of marijuana. If support for such legislation in the House is as strong as in the Senate, Governor Carcieri's veto threat might be academic; he could be overridden. I'd hate to be known as the governor who vetoed a bill to ease suffering. I'd prefer to sit down with lawmakers to try to rewrite the measure, minimize problems and come up with something decent. Sen. Rhoda Perry and Rep. Thomas Slater, chief sponsors, say they are willing to work with Carcieri. The governor said yesterday, "Nobody wants to see anybody suffering needlessly, including me." One thing on his mind is the awkwardness of the state approving pot-smoking when federal law prohibits it. But he seems more troubled by practical questions about where the marijuana would come from and how to control it. He said several other authorities, including law-enforcement officials, are down on the bill. "It's not like I'm the only one." He said he wants information about how such laws work in other states. "I'll just have to see where it goes," he said. Government and society must address the desperation of this situation, something that pols, like anyone else, encounter. Slater says, "My father died of cancer. My brother died of cancer. My uncle died of cancer." Slater says marijuana might have eased the pain of his brother, Joseph, who died at age 45 in 1985. "He withered down to nothing," Slater says. Indeed, Slater himself has cancer; maybe, down the road, marijuana could help him. Perry told the Senate of the suffering of her nephew, Edward Hawkins, who had AIDS and died last year at 41. She told me, "We wanted him to try marijuana. We would have gotten it for him. He refused. He was gay and he had had some negative encounters with police. . . . He was scared to death to try anything that was illegal that could put him into some kind of jeopardy." There has to be a way to deal with this problem. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake