HIGH COURT WILL RULE ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA

WASHINGTON -- In a development that could affect Hawai`i's medical
marijuana program, the Supreme Court agreed yesterday to hear a case
brought by the Clinton administration to stop a California group from
selling marijuana to patients.

As in Hawai`i, California law legalizes the possession and use of
marijuana for medical purposes with a doctor's recommendation.
Physicians cannot legally prescribe marijuana, and the law left murky
how patients would get the drug.

The case against the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative does not
directly address the constitutionality of the state medical marijuana
laws. Instead, it focuses on a narrower question: Is "medical
necessity" a defense against violating federal laws that prohibit the
distribution of marijuana?

In June, Gov. Ben Cayetano signed a bill making Hawai`i the eighth
state with a medical marijuana law. But the federal government
considers marijuana illegal, with no therapeutic value.

"There are profound and complicated federal/state issues that are
caught up in this medical marijuana dispute," said Jon Van Dyke, a
constitutional law professor at the University of Hawai`i. "This case
will have a bearing on Hawai`i law. We've got the same conflict."

The federal government has focused most of its attention not on
individual patients' smoking or ingesting marijuana, but on buyers'
clubs and cooperatives, which were set up to procure, grow and
distribute the drug.

So far, Hawai`i has only underground growers supplying patients. But
Pamela Lichty, vice president of the Drug Policy Forum of Hawai`i,
said a Supreme Court decision in the Oakland case "undoubtedly will
have an effect on us."