Pubdate: Wed, 28 Mar 2001
Source: Capital Times, The  (WI)
Copyright: 2001 The Capital Times
Contact:  P.O. Box 8060, Madison, WI 53708-8060
Fax: (608) 252-6445
Website: http://www.thecapitaltimes.com/
Author: Anne Gearan, Associated Press Writer

COURT TO DECIDE ON POT'S MEDICINAL USE

Seriously ill people who claim marijuana is nothing short of a 
miracle drug are watching anxiously as the Supreme Court examines 
whether the drug may be dispensed legally.

The court's watershed ruling, expected by June, likely will settle 
whether patients may get marijuana as a "medical necessity" even 
though it is an illegal drug under federal law.

A ruling for the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Club would allow special 
marijuana clubs to resume distributing the drug in California, which 
passed one of the nation's first medical marijuana laws in 1996.

A ruling for the federal government would not negate the California 
voter initiative, but would effectively prevent clubs like Oakland's 
from distributing the drug.

A vocal assortment of interest groups and activists supporting the 
use of marijuana as medical treatment have mounted an energetic 
public relations campaign ahead of Tuesday's oral arguments.

"No matter what the Supreme Court does, the medical marijuana 
movement has won," said Kevin Zeese, president of Common Sense for 
Drug Policy, a group promoting medical marijuana use and reform of 
drug laws generally.

"There is no way the federal government can put this genie back in 
the bottle," Zeese said.

A ruling against the club would mean the government could prosecute 
distributors aggressively in federal court, regardless of whether 
states have approved medical marijuana use. That would force 
providers underground or out of business altogether, advocates of 
medical marijuana say.

Gerald Uelman, lawyer for the Oakland club, said he is optimistic the 
court will see the case not as a referendum on medical marijuana, but 
as a rather ordinary legal examination of whether lower federal 
courts used their powers correctly. That would leave aside grander 
constitutional challenges to a 1970 federal drug law that found no 
medical use for marijuana.

"We're trying to structure the argument as narrowly as possible in 
this case," Uelman said. "We want the court to render a very narrow 
decision."

California Attorney General Bill Lockyer is backing the Oakland club, 
arguing that the state has the right to enforce its law allowing 
seriously ill patients to use marijuana.
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