SUPREME COURT TO HEAR ARGUMENTS ON MARIJUANA THERAPY

OAKLAND, Calif. -- A few years ago, an author writing about death asked
ailing AIDS patient Michael Alcalay how he was accepting dying.

"I'm not accepting it," Alcalay retorted.

Alcalay is alive today thanks in part, he says, to doses of marijuana
that helped him keep his medicines down and appetite up as he fought the
disease.

On Wednesday, Alcalay will be in the audience as lawyers try to convince
the U.S. Supreme Court that federal anti-drug laws shouldn't prevent
marijuana from being given to seriously ill patients for pain relief.

"Once the justices recognize what's really at stake in this case, if any
semblance of justice prevails then so will we," said Robert Raich, an
attorney representing the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative.

The cooperative is a distribution club operating under California's
Proposition 215, the voter-approved law that allows the possession and
use of marijuana for medical purposes on a doctor's recommendation.

That's where Alcalay used to get his marijuana. But he's had to look
elsewhere since the federal government sued the cooperative and five
other California pot clubs in 1998 to prevent them from distributing the
drug.

A federal judge sided with the government. But last year, the 9th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that "medical necessity" is a legal
defense.

California officials, including Attorney General Bill Lockyer, argue
that the state has the right to enforce its medical marijuana law, which
was approved by voters in 1996. Distribution clubs sprang up because
Proposition 215 is silent on how patients will get marijuana, outside of
growing and harvesting it themselves.

The Supreme Court is not looking directly at Proposition 215, but rather
at whether medical necessity may be used as a defense against federal
drug bans. It's unclear whether the justices will rule on that general
issue or rule more narrowly on how lower courts have handled this case.

If the court says "Yes" to the necessity defense, it could make it
easier to distribute medical marijuana in California and the eight other
states with similar laws -- Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Arizona,
Maine, Nevada and Colorado.

Advocates say marijuana is a reliable and nontoxic therapy that in some
cases is the only relief for suffering people.

That point of view was endorsed recently by the Institute of Medicine.
The institute, which was asked to examine the issue by the White House
drug policy office, said that because the chemicals in marijuana ease
anxiety, stimulate appetite, ease pain and reduce nausea and vomiting,
they can be helpful for people undergoing chemotherapy and people with
AIDS.