HIGH COURT COULD BOOST OR UNDERMINE MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAWS

Cancer is eating away at Creighton Frost. His lymph glands, thyroid,
larynx and much of the muscles on the right side of his body have been
removed. Marijuana, he says, is his only comfort.

Frost used to get the drug from the Oakland Cannabis Buyers'
Cooperative, a city-sanctioned club that openly challenges the federal
government - but conforms to California law - by offering marijuana to
people with a doctor's recommendation.

The U.S. Supreme Court decided Monday to review whether the club, and
perhaps others in states that also have medical marijuana laws, can
distribute the drug.

"I'm dying and falling apart a little bit at a time. I want some way
to not have such a miserable death," said Frost, whose illness forced
him to quit leading horseback wilderness tours.

Frost, who lives in the San Francisco Bay area suburb of San Ramon,
has been forced to get his marijuana illegally since August. That's
when the court ordered the club to cease operations at the request of
the Clinton administration.

The high court is expected to hear the case next year.

Justice Department lawyers said more than two dozen organizations have
been distributing marijuana for medical purposes in California,
Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington. California first passed a
medical marijuana law in 1996. Since then, eight other states have
followed.

Medical marijuana laws also have been passed in Alaska, Arizona,
Hawaii, Maine, Oregon, Washington, Nevada and Colorado. They too could
be struck down, depending on how broadly the court considers the case,
said Nathan Barankin, spokesman for California Attorney General Bill
Lockyer, who unsuccessfully lobbied Attorney General Janet Reno to
drop the Supreme Court challenge.

Jeff Jones, co-founder of the Oakland pot club, said the cooperative
has handed out 4,000 identification cards to members who have obtained
a doctor's recommendation to smoke marijuana.

"We have faith when the Supreme Court hears this case that it will
consider the needs of the patients who are suffering," Jones said. "We
hope that it vindicates Californians who have voted on allowing
patients to have compassionate access to this medicine and that it
vindicates the citizens in the states that have passed compassionate
access laws."

Generally, the state laws allow sick and dying patients with a
doctor's recommendation to use marijuana by growing it themselves or
obtaining it from a so-called "caregiver." While the laws do not
necessarily permit marijuana clubs, states have allowed them if their
purpose is for sick and dying patients.

California, for example, has a hodgepodge of medical marijuana
regulations. Some counties require identification cards to legally
possess and smoke marijuana. The city of Oakland allows users to
possess as much as six pounds, while Butte County allows growers to
possess up to 2 pounds.

Just last week, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration approved a
program allowing San Mateo County to give away government-grown
marijuana to 60 AIDS patients as part of a first-of-its-kind study to
assess the drug's potential benefits.

For Frost and other ill patients using marijuana, they say it settles
the stomach, builds weight and steadies spastic muscles. Users also
speak of relief from PMS, glaucoma, itching, insomnia, arthritis,
depression, childbirth and Attention Deficit Disorder.

The Justice Department, however, told the high court that marijuana
has "no currently accepted medical use."

Even so, it is unclear whether the nation's high court will consider
solely whether marijuana clubs violate federal law, or whether it will
rule on the legality of medical marijuana laws in their entirety.

"You never know how far they will go in considering issues broadly or
narrowly," said Annette Carnegie, a lawyer for the Oakland club.

Jim Gonzalez, a lobbyist with Americans for Medical Rights, said a
court decision allowing the pot clubs would give a huge boost to the
medical marijuana movement. The group is funded by billionaire George
Soros, who helped finance many of the nation's medical marijuana
initiatives.

"That would be the Supreme Court saying medical marijuana is OK,"
Gonzalez said.