COURT TO DECIDE ON POT'S MEDICINAL USE

Seriously ill people who claim marijuana is nothing short of a
miracle drug are watching anxiously as the Supreme Court examines
whether the drug may be dispensed legally.

The court's watershed ruling, expected by June, likely will settle
whether patients may get marijuana as a "medical necessity" even
though it is an illegal drug under federal law.

A ruling for the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Club would allow special
marijuana clubs 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 would effectively prevent clubs like Oakland's
from distributing the drug.

A vocal assortment of interest groups and activists supporting the
use of marijuana as medical treatment have mounted an energetic
public relations campaign ahead of Tuesday's oral arguments.

"No matter what the Supreme Court does, the medical marijuana
movement has won," said Kevin Zeese, president of Common Sense for
Drug Policy, a group promoting medical marijuana use and reform of
drug laws generally.

"There is no way the federal government can put this genie back in
the bottle," Zeese said.

A ruling against the club would mean the government could prosecute
distributors aggressively in federal court, regardless of whether
states have approved medical marijuana use. That would force
providers underground or out of business altogether, advocates of
medical marijuana say.

Gerald Uelman, lawyer for the Oakland club, said he is optimistic the
court will see the case not as a referendum on medical marijuana, but
as a rather ordinary legal examination of whether lower federal
courts used their powers correctly. That would leave aside grander
constitutional challenges to a 1970 federal drug law that found no
medical use for marijuana.

"We're trying to structure the argument as narrowly as possible in
this case," Uelman said. "We want the court to render a very narrow
decision."

California Attorney General Bill Lockyer is backing the Oakland club,
arguing that the state has the right to enforce its law allowing
seriously ill patients to use marijuana.