POT FOR PAIN

Federal Judge's Compassion for AIDS and Cancer Victims

It stands to reason that if the government can't illustrate why a law
is necessary, then that law should not exist. On Monday, a federal
judge seemed to agree with that proposition as he ruled that an
Oakland club can dispense marijuana to seriously ill clients who can't
relieve their pain in other ways. The decision by U.S. District Court
Judge Charles Breyer is not only compassionate, it strikes to the
heart of the federal government's prohibition against marijuana use.

Breyer said government attorneys had failed to offer "any evidence to
rebut defendants' evidence that cannabis is medically necessary for a
group of seriously ill individuals."

Local cannabis clubs and federal law enforcement agents have been at
war since 1996 when California voters passed Proposition 215. That
measure sought to legalize the use of medicinal marijuana by people
afflicted with chronic pain from terminal diseases such as AIDS and
cancer.

The feds closed a half dozen cannabis clubs and sued the Oakland
outlet when it refused to shut its doors. In 1998, Breyer ordered the
club closed. But last fall, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th
Circuit sent the case back to Breyer, saying he had acted "without
weighing or considering the public interest." This time he did.

Now the federal government - instead of continuing to fight reason -
should end its total prohibition of marijuana use. Pot eases the pain
very sick people suffer. For many of them, there is no better pain
relief. For some of them, there is no other way to relieve the pain.

A rational policy would recognize these facts, in the public interest,
and make cannabis legally available to those sick people for whom
there is not a better remedy.

Breyer was handicapped in his first hearing of this case because he
felt he was strictly bound by the letter of the law. (Congress can
quickly rectify that.) Many district attorneys, sheriffs and police
officials still feel that way. As a result, they're determined to keep
the lid on medicinal marijuana use.

That's too bad. They should follow the lead of San Francisco and some
other counties in developing a system to allow legitimate use,
including ID cards and monitoring of patients by doctors.

Denying needed medication isn't in the public interest, and it really
isn't in law enforcement's interest either.