Pubdate: Wed, 08 Jun 2005
Source: New York City Newsday (NY)
Copyright: 2005 Newsday, Inc.
Contact: http://cf.newsday.com/newsdayemail/email.cfm
Website: http://www.nynewsday.com/news/printedition/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3362
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Raich (Gonzales v. Raich )

LET THE SICK USE MARIJUANA

The Supreme Court Kicked the Issue to Congress, Which Now Should
Act

The Supreme Court has spoken on the subject of medical marijuana.
Federal authorities can prosecute sick people for using the drug, the
court ruled Monday, even in states with laws that make medicinal use
legal. But just because Washington can prosecute, that doesn't mean it
should.

In deciding against two California women who sued after the Drug
Enforcement Administration busted them for using locally grown
marijuana to relieve symptoms of a variety of conditions, the court
said it's up to Congress, or the president, to move medical marijuana
beyond the reach of federal drug law. Congress should do it. There's
no good reason to thwart the will of the people in the nine states
where voters, or their legislative representatives, have approved the
use of marijuana to relieve the debilitating nausea and wasting of
chronic illness.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) has been trying for 10 years to move
Congress to direct federal law enforcement officials to stand down. He
has reintroduced his states' rights to medical marijuana bill in the
House again this year - with 30 co-sponsors. "People are kind of
afraid of it," Frank said of his colleagues. The lawmakers should find
a little spine.

The high court tossed the ball to Congress after ruling reluctantly
that, given the current state of the law, it cannot justify barring
the prosecutions of medical marijuana users under the federal
Controlled Substances Act.

The only issue before the court was whether the Constitution's
commerce clause, which authorizes Congress to regulate interstate
trade, applied even though the marijuana in question was neither
commercially traded nor moved across state lines. Tortured, but well
established, court precedents said that it does, because there is "a
rational basis" for concluding that marijuana, even though intended
for home consumption, "has a substantial effect on supply and demand
in the national market for that commodity." That's a stretch.

Diane Monson has a painful degenerative spine disease. The DEA, in an
August 2002 raid, confiscated six marijuana plants that she had grown
for her own consumption. Angel Raich, who has a brain tumor and
scoliosis, got her marijuana free of charge from a friend. It's
difficult to see how circumstances such as theirs could significantly
impact the national supply or demand for marijuana.

Afflicting the sick is no way to wage war on drugs.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake