'MEDICAL POT' TAKES BLOW

High Court Rules That Marijuana Has No Use As Treatment; For Now, State
Initiatives Stand

WASHINGTON-- The Supreme Court ruled Monday that federal law does not allow
a "medical necessity" exception to the ban on the distribution of marijuana.

The 8-0 decision was a setback to a movement that has succeeded in passing
ballot initiatives permitting the medical use of marijuana in eight states.

The ruling did not overturn the state initiatives or address any question
of state law. Rather, the court ruled that marijuana's listing by Congress
as a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act means that it "has
no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States."

In an opinion by Justice Clarence Thomas, the justices ruled that the
federal appeals court in San Francisco misread federal law when it ruled
last year that an Oakland, Calif., marijuana cooperative could raise a
medical necessity defense against the federal government's effort to shut
down the pharmacy-like cooperative.

The cooperative distributes marijuana to patients whose doctors say they
need the drug to alleviate the symptoms of cancer, AIDS and other illnesses.

The Justice Department brought the case as a request for an injunction
rather than as a criminal prosecution, which would have required a jury
trial. Nearly three-quarters of Oakland's voters supported California's
Proposition 215, the 1996 initiative that enacted the Compassionate Use Act
to permit the medical use of marijuana.

The question before the Supreme Court on Monday wasn't the validity of the
California initiative itself but of the federal courts' response to the
government's request for an injunction.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ordered the trial
judge, Federal District Judge Charles Breyer, to tailor an injunction that
would permit those with a serious medical condition that could be
alleviated only by marijuana to have continued access to the drug.

The Clinton administration, asserting that the 9th Circuit had made an
error that threatened to undermine enforcement of the federal drug laws,
persuaded the Supreme Court to grant a stay of Breyer's ruling last August.

Given the narrowness of the question before the court, Monday's decision
left many unanswered questions. One was whether individual patients who
grow or possess marijuana for their own use could avail themselves of the
medical necessity defense.

Along with California, the states that have passed medical marijuana
initiatives are Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Alaska and Maine.