POLITICS OF PAIN

Court to decide whether states can allow medical marijuana.

The U.S. Supreme Court's recent inclination to shift regulatory power away
from Washington, D.C., and back to the states could be severely tested by
the question of whether states have the constitutional powers to let the
seriously ill use marijuana for pain relief.

The high court recently agreed to decide what prevails -- federal drug laws
labeling marijuana as an illegal narcotic, or California's voter-approved
proposition that permits distribution of marijuana to ill people. Underlying
the debate is the larger question of how far states can go in drawing their
own lines between the criminal use of drugs and their possible medical
benefits.

Eight other states have similar ``medical marijuana'' laws, most through
voter initiatives, and Florida may join the list if a pending referendum
makes it on to the ballot in 2002.

These states have taken this step because the federal government repeatedly
has rejected the findings of studies showing that marijuana's active
ingredient can help people suffering from glaucoma, AIDS, cancer therapies,
wasting diseases and chronic pain.

But federal drug officials long have argued that medical use of marijuana
opens the door to expanded uses. California and other consenting states see
no confusion of the two issues: legalization of marijuana for everyone is
not the same as allowing its limited use when no other medication provides
relief, they argue. And, they say, the Constitution gives states the right
to make that decision.

The high court will do everyone a favor by settling the debate.

In a related states-rights question, this week the Senate may take up the
mislabeled Pain Relief Promotion Act. It usefully provides for more study of
pain management, but its major thrust in effect would nullify Oregon's
voter-approved, limited right-to-physician assistance in the suicide of the
terminally ill.

The bill's opponents also argue that the act would further discourage
doctors from using sufficient doses of drugs such as morphine to quell the
pain of the dying.

Government needs to control addictive medicines such as morphine, cocaine
and others. But the Supreme Court may decide that if the concept of states
rights is to have meaning, the lines between legality and criminality can be
wisely drawn outside the Beltway.