Pubdate: Tue, 07 Jun 2005
Source: Knoxville News-Sentinel (TN)
Copyright: 2005 The Knoxville News-Sentinel Co.
Contact:  http://www.knoxnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/226
Author: Gina Holland, Associated Press
Cited: Drug Policy Alliance http://www.drugpolicy.org
Cited: Gonzales v. Raich http://www.angeljustice.org
Cited:  National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws 
http://www.norml.org
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Raich (Angel Raich)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

FEDERAL LAW TRUMPS STATE OK OF MARIJUANA, HIGH COURT RULES

Feds Can Prosecute Users, Suppliers of Medicinal Pot

WASHINGTON - People who smoke marijuana because their doctors
recommend it to ease pain can be prosecuted for violating federal drug
laws, the Supreme Court ruled Monday, overriding medical marijuana
statutes in 10 states.

The court's 6-3 decision was filled with sympathy for two seriously
ill California women who brought the case, but the majority agreed
that federal agents may arrest even sick people who use the drug as
well as the people who grow pot for them.

Justice John Paul Stevens, an 85-year-old cancer survivor, said
the court was not passing judgment on the potential medical benefits
of marijuana, and he noted "the troubling facts" in the case. However,
he said the Constitution allows federal regulation of homegrown
marijuana as interstate commerce.

The Bush administration has taken a hard stand against state medical
marijuana laws, but it was unclear how it would respond to the new
prosecutorial power. Justice Department spokesman John Nowacki would
not say whether prosecutors would pursue cases against individual users.

In a dissent, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said the court's
"overreaching stifles an express choice by some states, concerned for
the lives and liberties of their people, to regulate medical marijuana
differently."

The women who brought the case expressed defiance.

"I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing. I don't really have a
choice but to, because if I stop using cannabis, I would die," said
Angel Raich of Oakland, Calif., who suffers from ailments including
scoliosis, a brain tumor, chronic nausea, fatigue and pain. She says
she smokes marijuana every few hours.

Diane Monson, an accountant who lives near Oroville, Calif., has
degenerative spine disease and grows her own marijuana plants. "I'm
going to have to be prepared to be arrested," she said.

The ruling does not strike down California's law, or similar ones in
Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and
Washington state. However, it may hurt efforts to pass laws in other
states because the federal government's prosecution authority trumps
states' wishes.

John Walters, director of national drug control policy, defended the
government's ban. "Science and research have not determined that
smoking marijuana is safe or effective," he said.

California's law, passed by voters in 1996, allows people to grow,
smoke or obtain marijuana for medical needs with a doctor's
recommendation. Monson and Raich contend that traditional medicines do
not provide the relief that marijuana does.

California Attorney General Bill Lockyer said Monday that "people
shouldn't panic ... there aren't going to be many changes."

Local and state officers handle nearly all marijuana prosecutions and
must still follow any state laws that protect patients.

"I think it would look bad if the federal government focused its
prosecution authority on a sick person," said Daniel Abrahamson, with
the Drug Policy Alliance. "Individual patients growing for their own
purposes have not been the targets of the federal authorities. We hope
that it stays that way."

The government has arrested more than 60 people in medical marijuana
raids since September 2001, according to the National Organization for
the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

O'Connor was joined in her dissent by two other states' rights
advocates: Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justice Clarence
Thomas. While conservatives may not necessarily support medical
marijuana, they have pushed to broaden states' rights in recent years.

Thomas said the ruling was so broad "the federal government may now
regulate quilting bees, clothes drives and potluck suppers throughout
the 50 states." 
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