A DOCTOR'S RIGHT TO SPEAK

California doctors should feel both vindicated and emboldened by the
U.S. Supreme Court's refusal to outlaw doctor-patient discussions on
the possible benefits of medical marijuana.

The high court has wisely rejected a request by the Bush
administration to decide whether the federal government can punish
doctors who merely advise patients that marijuana may have some
therapeutic power, possibly lessening the pain and discomfort of
illnesses and diseases. At issue was a ruling by the Ninth Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco that allowed physicians to
offer patients their best clinical judgments without fear of federal
reprisals.

Bush appealed, seeking authority to put doctors out of business by
revoking their licenses to prescribe drugs if they tell patients that
pot might be helpful. It was an affront to free speech, medical ethics
and the physicians' Hippocratic oath to help the sick to the best of
their ability. But mostly it was a backdoor effort to nullify medical
marijuana laws in California and eight other states.

The state's pot law was passed by voters in 1996, but most of the
prescriptions have come from just a handful of doctors. These
decisions, often involving cases of the gravely ill, should be based
on a physician's best medical judgment -- not the politics of the Bush
administration.