Pubdate: Tue, 07 Jun 2005 Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA) Copyright: 2005 San Jose Mercury News Contact: http://www.mercurynews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/390 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Raich (Gonzales v. Raich ) COURT RULING ALLOWS PERSECUTION BY FEDS State Should Still Protect Authorized Users Over the past decade, the U.S. Supreme Court has restricted the federal government's role in regulating what happens within states' borders. But faced with applying its new view of federal deference to 10 states' medicinal marijuana laws, the justices flinched. Consistency failed when it came to the feds' misguided war on drugs. On Monday, the court ruled 6-3 that federal officials can prosecute people with debilitating illnesses who smoke pot with doctors' permission. Congress' power under the Constitution to regulate interstate commerce gives it the right to ban any use of marijuana under any circumstance, the majority said. Never mind that the justices have warned Congress that the interstate commerce clause is not an open-ended excuse to meddle in state matters. The justices first did that in 1995, when, in a decision that looks even quirkier now, a majority said Congress had no authority to ban guns within 1,000 feet of a school. Never mind that in 1996, California voters approved Proposition 215, allowing medicinal marijuana to relieve suffering. Never mind that Proposition 215 tightly regulated marijuana distribution, to keep it from getting into the hands of those who would traffic in it. This marks the second time that the Supreme Court has ruled against medicinal marijuana. In 2001, it unanimously stated that there is no exception under the federal Controlled Substances Act permitting a defense of "medical necessity" in the production and distribution of marijuana. The latest decision will not overturn Proposition 215. We encourage Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, state Attorney General Bill Lockyer, county sheriffs and police chiefs to quickly affirm that they will continue to protect authorized users of marijuana -- even if that puts them at odds with the feds. But the decision will leave users of medicinal pot, like the two women who were the focus of the case, Angel McClary Raich and Diane Monson, vulnerable to arrest by federal drug agents. It will place at great risk those courageous enough to dispense the drug to them. In his majority opinion, Justice John Paul Stevens said Congress has the power to amend the Controlled Substances Act. While true, it has been the mulish refusal of Congress and presidents to accommodate medicinal marijuana that led states to act on their own in the first place. Three years ago, federal agents seized a half-dozen of Monson's pot plants despite the efforts of local sheriff's deputies to block them. We hope that, having won its case and made its point, the Bush administration will stop persecuting those who are already suffering. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake