Pubdate: Thu, 16 Oct 2003
Source: Racine Journal Times, The (WI)
Copyright: 2003, The Racine Journal Times
Contact:  http://www.journaltimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1659

COURT RAISES HOPES ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA

The U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday told the federal government to exhale just a 
little bit and not be so overzealous in its sanctions of doctors who talk 
to their patients about the medicinal benefits of marijuana.

Without comment the high court let stand a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals 
ruling which held that doctors have a constitutional right to speak 
candidly with their patients.

The ruling was a setback for the Bush administration which was following a 
policy - initially set in the Clinton administration - to punish doctors 
who recommend the medicinal use of marijuana to their patients or who even 
discuss the drug's benefits by revoking the federal licenses they need to 
write prescriptions.

The federal enforcement efforts also proposed excluding those doctors from 
Medicare and Medicaid programs and criminal charges if they helped their 
patients get marijuana.

The court's action, or rather inaction, doesn't open the door to widespread 
medicinal prescription of marijuana since federal laws still make it 
illegal to grow, sell or possess marijuana.

But at the very least it will allow the debate to continue on the medical 
use of marijuana without fear of government sanction and may encourage more 
states to join nine states which have authorized the medicinal use of 
marijuana - Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Maine, 
Colorado and Maryland.

Advocates of medical marijuana have long argued that it can be effective in 
the treatment of glaucoma and arthritis and that it can also be beneficial 
in the treatment of pain form some people who suffer from AIDS or nausea 
that results from chemotherapy treatment for cancer. While doctors can 
already prescribe THC, the active chemical ingredient in marijuana, 
advocates say those pills are not as effective in delivering relief for 
some people.

Those are compelling arguments and ones that rightly are the province of 
medical research and the judgment of physicians without having to fear an 
episode of reefer madness by an overzealous executive branch that cannot 
distinguish between medical uses of a drug and illicit recreational uses.

Doctors routinely prescribe the use of narcotics and other drugs when they 
are called for. If it has proven medical efficacy, marijuana should be an 
option as well here in Wisconsin.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman