Pubdate: Mon, 13 Jun 2005
Source: Sentinel And Enterprise, The (MA)
Copyright: 2005 MediaNews Group, Inc.
Contact:  http://sentinelandenterprise.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2498
Author: Kathleen Parker, Tribune Media Services Inc.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Raich (Gonzales v. Raich)

GETTING TOUGH WITH THE TERMINALLY ILL

I've got that all-over tingly feeling not felt since Martha Stewart
was put away and America's mean streets made safe again.

I'm talking, of course, about Monday's Supreme Court ruling against
state-sanctioned medical marijuana use that will keep the terminally
ill and  chronic pain sufferers from firing up a marijuana joint,
getting stoned and, in addition to risking acute munchies, enjoying a
temporary reprieve from hellish suffering. Thank G-d we've got that
particular homeland security problem under control. Why, in the age of
terror, one can never be too careful with dying people who have
nothing left to lose.

With rulings like this, alas, comedy is doomed. The high court's 6-3
decision, in fact, had little to do with whether suffering people
deserve relief, but whether the federal government has  authority over
states that have authorized medical marijuana use. To date, 11  states
have such laws: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine,
Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington.

The court ruled that even though medical marijuana may be homegrown
and not for sale, it nevertheless falls under the federal Controlled
Substances Act. While lawyers hash out the legal intricacies, normal
people are left wondering whether the Supreme Court has been partaking
of the evil weed.  Exceptions would be dissenters Chief Justice
William Rehnquist, and Justices  Sandra Day O'Connor and Clarence Thomas.

Who, after all, gets hurt when dying or sick people smoke pot? Quick
aside to the feds: When my spine is disintegrating from cancer and I'm
blind from glaucoma and I can't take a breath without agonizing pain,
I'm gonna  toke up, OK? Just FYI.

It seems remote to ridiculous that federal agents now will start
arresting sick people for getting high, though stranger things can and
do happen. Who could have imagined the scene we witnessed when
then-Attorney General Janet Reno decided it was time for little Elian
Gonzalez to get on back to Cuba? (I supported Elian's return to his
father, by the way, but I must have been stoned to think we could
accomplish a family reunion without a SWAT team and automatic
weapons.) Ironically, the Supreme Court ruling follows a study by
Harvard professor Jeffrey Miron recommending that the U.S. legalize
and tax marijuana (prohibitioncosts.org). Endorsed by some 500
economists, including Milton  Friedman, the report noted the high cost
of marijuana prohibition -- about $7.7  billion annually -- and the
boon to the economy that an estimated $6.2 billion  per year in taxes
would provide.

Justice John Paul Stevens, who wrote the court's decision, offered a
glimmer of hope when he noted that Congress could change the law to
allow for medicinal  uses of marijuana. By any measure, such a legal
shift is long overdue and likely  would be hugely popular.

In an unscientific poll posted Monday on MSNBC's Web site,
self-selecting respondents were asked: "Should the federal government
prosecute medical marijuana users, now that it has been given the OK
by the Supreme Court?" By midday, more than 63,000 had responded, with
88 percent saying "no." Ten percent said "yes," and 2 percent weren't
sure.

Otherwise, more than 60 U.S. and international health organizations,
including the American Public Health Association and the American
Nurses Association, support allowing sick people to use marijuana
under a doctor's  care, according to the marijuana advocacy group
NORML. (Go to norml.org for a  list and other information.) Others,
including the American Cancer Society and  the American Medical
Association, favor more research into the medical uses of marijuana,
according to NORML.

As absurd as Monday's ruling seems, advocates for medical marijuana
are not optimistic that Congress will have the courage to pass more
reasonable marijuana  laws. Which raises the question: Whatever
happened to compassionate conservatism?

What's more conservative, after all, than getting the federal
government out of private, victimless, state-sanctioned decisions? And
what's more compassionate than letting a woman with brain cancer feel
a little less tortured during her final days?

Congress has an opportunity to demonstrate how compassionate
conservatism works by passing a bipartisan measure -- the "States'
Rights to Medical Marijuana Act" (HR 2087) -- that recently was
reintroduced. Defeated previously,  the act would change marijuana's
classification so that doctors could prescribe it under certain
circumstances without altering current laws related to recreational
use.

Thanks to the triumph of common sense over Prohibition, I can drink to
that.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake