Pubdate: Tue, 15 May 2001
Source: USA Today (US)
Copyright: 2001 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc
Contact:  http://www.usatoday.com/news/nfront.htm
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/466
Author: John Ritter
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/ocbc.htm (Oakland Cannabis Court Case)

MEDICAL MARIJUANA BACKERS VOW TO CONTINUE THEIR BATTLE

OAKLAND -- Medical marijuana users said Monday that they fear the
Supreme Court's ruling barring local clubs from dispensing the drug
would force seriously ill people to take desperate measures to obtain
the only substance that relieves their symptoms.

Legal experts, however, said the court's decision was a narrow one that
prohibits marijuana distribution but will not prevent tens of thousands
of sick people from smoking pot legally under a California law enacted
in 1996.

"When a family member has to go out on the street and get medicine for a
patient, that's wrong," said Angel McClary, who suffers from inoperable
brain cancer. "We should be able to have safe, affordable access. We
shouldn't have to be dealing with the criminal element. And that's what
this decision has reduced us to."

McClary, 35, was one of 8,000 patients who received marijuana through
the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative until a federal court
injunction in 1998 banned distribution from the co-op's downtown
Broadway storefront. The Supreme Court ruled Monday that "medical
necessity" does not override a federal law that makes manufacture and
distribution of marijuana illegal.

Eight other states allow marijuana to be used as medicine in small
amounts: Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Colorado and
Arizona.

Supporters here vowed to fight on. "This decision is not the end of the
line by any means; it just marks the end of the first round," said
Robert Raich, one of the co-op's lawyers. Raich said the co-op will
pursue other arguments in the lower courts. He said the Supreme Court
declined to rule on whether medical marijuana should be solely the
province of the states or whether the federal government violated the
Constitution's protection of trade within a state's borders. He also
said the co-op would press for jury trials in future civil cases.

Since Proposition 215 made medical marijuana legal in California, juries
have acquitted virtually every user who has been prosecuted. The
standards for prosecution vary widely across the state: Some
jurisdictions charge people who say they're medical users if they
possess a number of plants that would not bring charges somewhere else.

Proposition 215 set few rules for use or distribution, but Oakland, San
Francisco and other California cities have passed guidelines specifying
how much of the drug users can possess or grow.

California authorities were still studying the Supreme Court ruling
Monday, but Attorney General Bill Lockyer said, "It is unfortunate that
the court was unable to respect California's historic role as a
'laboratory' for good public policy and a leader in the effort to help
sick and dying residents who have no hope for relief other than through
medical marijuana."

The Oakland co-op counsels the sick, sells paraphernalia and issues I.D.
cards to patients who have a doctor's recommendation that they smoke
marijuana to relieve symptoms, which the law requires.

"If not for medical marijuana, I wouldn't be here today," said Mike
Aclalay, the co-op's medical director, who has had AIDS since the
mid-1980s. "It really kept up my appetite, and it kept up my will to
live." He said that more than 900 doctors have recommended marijuana for
Oakland-area patients.

Jeff Jones, the co-op's executive director and co-founder, called the
ruling "heavy-handed and misguided" because it proposed no alternative
to illegal street purchases. "The Bush administration owes it to
California citizens that are suffering to offer them something that is
safe and affordable," Jones said.

McClary says the movement is too established to falter.

"I have to go home tonight and tell my children that the government has
just given their mother a death sentence," she said. "I cannot follow
that law. I can't go back to hell. I've been there. I've seen it. I'm
sorry, but I'm not willing to go back."
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