SUPREME COURT HEARS MARIJUANA ARGUMENTS

Feds Want Drug To Remain Illegal, But Proponents Says The Medical Benefits
Are To Strong To Ignore.

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Supreme Court took a first look at prescription pot
Wednesday, hearing arguments on an issue that has pitted the federal
government against cancer and AIDS patients, and others who sometimes
regard marijuana as a wonder drug.

As far as the federal government is concerned, marijuana is illegal and
should remain so. Federal enforcement efforts have led to confrontations
and arrests in California and other Western states.

The issue for an openly skeptical Supreme Court is whether a patient's need
for marijuana trumps a 1970 federal law that classifies it as an illegal
substance with no known medical value.

Voters in Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Maine
and Nevada have approved ballot initiatives allowing the use of medical
marijuana. In Hawaii, the Legislature passed a similar law and the governor
signed it last year.

President Bush supports federal prohibitions on marijuana, but also
respects states' rights to pass voter initiatives, spokesman Ari Pleischer
said.

"The president is opposed to the legalization of marijuana, including for
medicinal purposes," he said Wednesday.

Lawyers for the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative in California want to
make what they call a "medical necessity" defense in federal court, and
argue that federal judges and juries have the power to decide if the drug
is warranted.

Several justices seemed to think that approach was a stretch at best.

"I thought the medical necessity defense was for an individual," Justice
Antonin Scalia said. "You would extend it to the person prescribing the
drug, and even to opening a business" to dispense it.

"That's a vast expansion beyond any necessity defense I've ever heard of,"
Scalia said.

The court's ruling is expected by the end of June.

A ruling for the Oakland club would allow special marijuana organizations
to resume distributing the drug in California, which passed one of the
nation's first medical marijuana laws in 1996. A ruling for the federal
government would not negate the California voter initiative, but
effectively would prevent clubs such as Oakland's from distributing the
drug openly.

Advocates of medical marijuana say the drug can ease side effects from
chemotherapy, save nauseated AIDS patients from wasting away or even allow
multiple sclerosis sufferers to rise from a wheelchair and walk.

Representing the government, Barbara Underwood said the 1970 Controlled
Substances Act leaves no room for the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative
and others to act as "marijuana pharmacies."

Several states are considering medical marijuana laws, and Congress may
revisit the issue this year. A measure to counteract laws such as
California 's died in the House last year.