Pubdate: Tue, 22 May 2001 Source: Register-Guard, The (OR) Copyright: 2001 The Register-Guard Contact: http://www.registerguard.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/362 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/ocbc.htm (Oakland Cannabis Court Case) SUICIDE LAW UNAFFECTED: COURT DECISION'S IMPACT MISUNDERSTOOD The logic of last week's U.S. Supreme Court ruling on medical marijuana was inescapable: Only Congress, not the states, can change the federal law prohibiting all uses of marijuana. Oregonians must now guard against those who would extend that logic to an area where it does not apply: Oregon's physician-assisted suicide law. It's easy to see how medical marijuana laws came to be linked to Oregon's unique law allowing people to seek a doctor's help in ending a terminal illness. Both deal with federally controlled drugs - marijuana in one case, prescription drugs in the other. If one type of state law conflicts with the federal Controlled Substances Act, as the Supreme Court ruled on May 14, it seems reasonable to conclude that the conflict would invalidate the physician-assisted suicide law as well. Sen. Gordon Smith made the connection in a speech in The Dalles last month: "Oregon's law ... violates a federal law, the Controlled Substances Act," Smith said. "So Oregon passes a law and says we'll use these substances for lethal purposes even though federal law says we can't." President George Bush made the same point in an interview with The Oregonian last year: "It is the proper role of the federal government to regulate controlled substances," then-Gov. Bush said. "That's been around a lot longer than the Oregon vote." But the parallel between medical marijuana and assisted suicide is a false one. There are two important differences: First, the Controlled Substances Act lists marijuana as a drug for which there are no approved uses. The drugs used in physician-assisted suicides - mainly barbiturates - are classed as drugs for which medical uses are recognized. Second, medical practice is regulated by the states, not the federal government. Oregon has the right to enact laws defining physician-assisted suicide as being within the scope of accepted medical practice. The U.S. Justice Department already has explored the question of whether federal drug laws take precedence over Oregon's physician-assisted suicide law. In 1998, the department found "no evidence" that Congress, in approving the Controlled Substances Act, "intended to displace the states as the primary regulators of the medical profession, or to override a state's determination of what constitutes legitimate medical practice in the absence of a federal law prohibiting that practice." Opponents can't invoke an existing federal law to invalidate Oregon's physician-assisted suicide law. The best they can do is ask Congress to pass a new federal law banning assisted suicide, though crafting such a law without intruding too heavily on states' rights or standard medical practice has so far proven difficult. Smith, Bush and others would be better advised to let Oregonians decide this matter - as they've done by approving the law twice at the polls. - --- MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager