Coping With a Life Full of Pain

PLAINTIFF USES MEDICAL MARIJUANA EVERY 2 HOURS, BUT DOESN'T GET HIGH

Angel Raich voted for California's Proposition 215 in 1996 because she
thought medical marijuana might help others.

Then came the night, a year later, when Raich steered her wheelchair into
the bedroom of her sobbing 9-year-old daughter, who asked her, "Why can't
you do the things that other mommies do?"

Partially paralyzed, in constant pain from multiple disorders and desperate
for help after trying nearly three dozen doctor-prescribed medications, the
30-year-old woman, a product of a conservative upbringing that made her
recoil from illegal drugs, decided pot "might be my last shot."

It worked. Raich regained her appetite, felt less pain, got out of her
wheelchair 18 months later and embarked on a career of advocacy for herself
and other patients that has led her to the U.S. Supreme Court.

On Monday, the court will hear the case of Ashcroft vs. Raich, a clash of
federal and state powers that could determine the future of medical
marijuana in the United States.

Lawyers for Raich and co-plaintiff Diane Monson argue that their use of
marijuana -- obtained from within California, without any cost or
commercial transaction, under procedures regulated by state law -- is
exempt from federal drug laws because the Constitution allows Congress to
regulate only interstate commerce.

Government lawyers contend all marijuana use is part of illicit drug
traffic that affects interstate commerce. While denying that marijuana has
any legitimate use, the government says any claimed medical benefits are
legally available in a pill called Marinol, which has the same active
ingredient.

Before filing her suit in 2002, Raich tried Marinol. It made her sick.

"I haven't had a pain-free minute in years," she said in an interview in
the Oakland home she shares with her husband and lawyer, Robert Raich, and
her teenage son and daughter from an earlier marriage.

She's suffered back pain from scoliosis and pelvic pain from endometriosis
since her teenage years. She became partially paralyzed from an allergic
reaction to doctor-recommended birth control pills in 1995.

Since then, she's been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor, a seizure
disorder and a wasting syndrome. She keeps 98 to 100 pounds on her 5-
foot-4 frame only by gorging on high-calorie foods and using marijuana to
maintain her appetite.

Medical cannabis, as Raich calls it, doesn't eliminate her pain but makes
it "easier to cope. ... I don't get high. There's no euphoric effect. I do
not like using it."

Still, she takes her pipe everywhere, even to the Oakland Police
Department, where she's worked with officers on their encounters with
medical marijuana patients. She also vaporizes the drug, mixes it with
massage oils, or bakes it in zucchini bread, which she eats in large
quantities before a rare and agonizing plane trip like her journey to
Washington for Monday's hearing.

Raich, now 39, has a doctor's recommendation for marijuana, as required by
Prop. 215, and says she needs the medication every two hours. She wakes up
in pain every morning and requires help getting out of bed. She uses 8
pounds of marijuana a year and gets it for free from two caregivers -- "my
heroes" -- in thanks for her work as an advocate.

Her previous supplier, an Oakland marijuana cooperative, was shut down by
the federal government and challenged the action in court, claiming that
federal law allowed it to distribute the drug to gravely ill patients who
had no legal alternative. That case also reached the Supreme Court, which
ruled in the government's favor in 2001.

Raich, who took part in the case, said she heard Justice Department
staffers discussing plans after the hearing to step up their enforcement in
California. Determined to stop them, she and her allies decided on a
pre-emptive lawsuit -- "my way of putting on a defense without being
raided." She also enlisted Monson, whose marijuana plants in Oroville
(Butte County) had been seized by federal agents in August 2002.

Carrying the banner for thousands of patients in 10 states with medical
marijuana laws, Raich professes confidence in her case but reckons the suit
has also made her a target, with prosecution and a prison sentence likely
if she loses. She said she has her daughter's permission to leave the
country if necessary.

"I plan to fight this if it takes my very last breath," she said. "It's
time for the federal government to stay out of patients' lives."