Pubdate: Sun, 22 Mar 2009 Source: Ventura County Star (CA) Copyright: 2009 The E.W. Scripps Co. Contact: http://www.venturacountystar.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/479 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal) SANE POLICY AT LONG LAST Relief For Medicinal-Pot Users Finally, there is sanity in federal policy regarding states that have legalized medicinal marijuana, including California. Proposition 215 -- allowing the use of marijuana for medical purposes, if recommended by a physician -- passed overwhelmingly in California 13 years ago. Despite that, the federal government continued to prosecute medicinal-marijuana users and dispensary groups. It has been able to do so because federal law outlawing marijuana cultivation and use supersedes state law. The conflicting laws have created a legal Catch-22 that defies logic. Until now. Wednesday, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said the U.S. Justice Department will not prosecute medicinal-marijuana dispensaries that follow the laws of the state in which they operate. Although Barack Obama indicated during his campaign that he would change the old policy, after his inauguration, the Drug Enforcement Agency was still raiding medical-marijuana dispensaries in states where they were legal. Now, we presume the DEA has gotten the memo. We hope to hear no more stories of sick people with cancer, eating disorders, glaucoma, AIDS and other illnesses being prosecuted for using marijuana recommended by their physicians. As a result of 1970s drug-war policies, marijuana was listed as a schedule 1 drug, meaning it was deemed to have no medical use. That, despite the fact that cocaine is listed as a schedule 2 drug, available by prescription. The schedule 1 designation for marijuana remained even after a yearlong study in 1999 by the Institute of Medicine at the National Academy of Science concluded marijuana's effectiveness in treating certain ailments, including nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy in cancer patients. Last year, the American College of Physicians -- a group of 124,000 doctors of internal medicine -- called on the federal government to ease its ban on medical marijuana. State officials tried to finesse the state-federal law conflict in last year's "Guidelines for the Security and Non-Diversion of Marijuana Grown for Medical Use." In the 11-page document, California Attorney General Jerry Brown wrote: Neither Proposition 215 nor the state's 2004 Medical Marijuana Program conflict with the federal Controlled Substances Act because "in adopting these laws, California did not 'legalize' medical marijuana, but instead exercised the state's reserved powers to not punish certain marijuana offenses under state law when a physician has recommended its use to treat a serious medical condition." Not even the U.S. Supreme Court could speak straight in its 6-3 vote in 2005 that state medical marijuana laws do not protect people from federal prosecution. Justice John Paul Stevens wrote that the court based its decision solely on the technical interstate commerce aspect of the case and not the medical-necessity defense. The court punted, saying the issue belongs before Congress. So, after 13 years of this ongoing dilemma, spanning the Clinton and Bush administrations, someone at the federal level at last says something that doesn't need legal gymnastics to grasp: Sick people in states that have legalized medicinal marijuana need not fear being prosecuted or jailed for seeking treatment recommended by their doctors. Now that Attorney General Holder has articulated this welcome policy, we hope transplant hospital administrators get the message and don't kick any more patients off their transplant lists just because they used medical marijuana. Ridiculous laws can have ridiculous and tragic results. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom