BASE POT LAWS ON SCIENCE

We've been known to find fault with some of the zanier rulings of the San
Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. But we were pleased
Tuesday when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review a challenge by the
Bush administration of a 9th Circuit decision that barred federal drug
warriors from punishing doctors who recommended medical marijuana for some
patients.

Ten states, including California and Colorado, have some sort of medical
marijuana laws on their books that allow physicians to recommend that
certain patients - such as those undergoing chemotherapy for cancer or
taking multiple drugs for AIDS - smoke marijuana to relieve nausea and
other symptoms. Proponents of those laws argue that even though the active
ingredient in marijuana - THC - has been synthesized, the pills don't work
with all patients.

Tuesday's rejection of Bush administration's appeal, however, didn't
address that medical/scientific question. Rather, it focused on a much
narrower issue: whether the feds could revoke the federal prescription
licenses of physicians who recommended or even broached the subject of
medical marijuana with their patients. The 9th Circuit ruled in 2002 that
the government couldn't do that because it blocked discussions between
doctors and patients in violation of the First Amendment.

Both the Clinton and Bush administrations have claimed that laws permitting
medical marijuana harm the war on drugs. The Post, too, has doubts about
medical marijuana laws, but our opposition to the amendment Colorado voters
passed in 2000 was rooted in how the law was structured and questions about
the drug's effectiveness. The feds haven't allowed really meaningful
scientific testing to determine exactly how smoked marijuana relieves symptoms.

The government has a role in regulating medicine, but decisions on what's
effective in treating illnesses should be based on science, not politics.
We hope we've come a long way since the 17th century when Galileo had to
recant what he knew to be true - that the Earth revolved around the sun.

We welcome the high court's action on Tuesday as a step toward rational
thought rather than pure emotion.