http://www.latimes.com/editions/orange/20000831/t000081711.html

Santa Ana activist says justices are inflicting 'cruel and unusual punishment' on ill people who use pot to control pain or nausea.

With the United States Supreme Court on Tuesday coming one step closer to barring Californians from giving marijuana to people racked by pain, the quality of mercy has become ever more strained, local advocates said.

"What the Supreme Court is doing is inflicting cruel and unusual punishment on people who are already in pain," said Marvin Chavez, a Santa Ana marijuana-for-medicine activist who spent 15 months imprisoned on drug charges related to his cannabis club.

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