COURT: LET CONGRESS LEGALIZE IT

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. government may prosecute sick people who use
marijuana under a doctor's prescription to ease pain, the Supreme Court
ruled Monday. The justices said a federal ban on the drug trumps laws that
protect such patients.

The court's 6-3 decision came in an emotionally charged case that tested
"medical-marijuana" laws in California and nine other states intended to
protect patients who use marijuana for medicinal purposes. The case pitted
patients with cancer, AIDS and other serious illnesses who say marijuana
eases their pain against the U.S. government and its desire to prevent
illegal drug trafficking. It also was a test for a Supreme Court that
generally has favored states' rights over federal authority.

The ruling does not overturn California's 1996 law or the other laws, but
it cancels their provisions that exempt medical users from federal
prosecution. It also leaves the future of medicinal marijuana with the
Justice Department, which must decide how aggressively to pursue patients,
and with Congress, which could change U.S. law to allow medical marijuana.

Federal prosecutions make up a tiny percentage of marijuana charges
nationally, but the Bush administration says enforcement of marijuana laws
is a priority and insists the drug has no medicinal value. The
Republican-led Congress has shown no sign of passing a medical-marijuana law.

The court's majority said Congress' power to regulate interstate commerce
overrides medical-marijuana laws in California, Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii,
Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington state. The court
noted that it has restricted Congress' power to regulate state activities
in the past, but it said this case was different because it involved
economic activity.

For the majority, Justice John Paul Stevens said that even patients who
grow small amounts of marijuana for themselves could have a "substantial
impact" on the market for the "extraordinarily popular" drug. He said
exemptions from prosecution also could lead to prescription abuse.

But Stevens said backers of medical marijuana could persuade Congress to
allow such uses of the drug. Angel Raich, one of the two California women
who brought the case, vowed to pressure Congress. "I'm in this battle
literally for my life," said Raich, who uses marijuana to ease pain from a
brain tumor and a seizure disorder. Her lawyer, Randy Barnett, said he
would go to a lower court to claim that patients have a right to avoid
needless suffering.