WAR ON DOCS PRESCRIBING STATES' RIGHTS

What happened to the Republican principle of states' rights? It is
missing these days when it comes to medicinal marijuana.

President Bush seeks to punish doctors who follow state laws such as
California's that allow physicians to recommend marijuana to certain
patients with certain conditions. The punishment is a severe one:
revoking these doctors' federal prescription licenses.

The appellate court ruled in favor of these doctors and against the
Bush administration. Bush's lawyers, however, have decided to pursue
these doctors all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Why?

Voters, for better or worse, have decided to make some fuzzy
exceptions to their state's bans on marijuana for patients and
providers who will jump through some hoops. Federal law has no such
exceptions, yet the efforts to prosecute the patients in federal court
have been largely unsuccessful. So the administration, as part of its
broader war on drugs, has decided to intensify the witch hunt against
the doctors. This is a misguided, disturbing attack on physicians, on
patients and on voters who approved these laws.