JUDGE LIMITS PUNISHMENT OF DOCTORS

SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal judge yesterday told the government it can't
penalize doctors who recommend marijuana by revoking their licenses to
dispense medication.

The order by U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup came a month after the
federal government said it would resist Proposition 215, California's
voter-approved medical marijuana law. The decision has broad implications
for several states with similar laws.

Measures similar to Proposition 215, which voters approved in 1996, have
passed in Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington state.

A Department of Justice spokeswoman had no comment on the ruling last night.

Alsup wrote that the Department of Justice is permanently prohibited from
revoking licenses to dispense medication "merely because the doctor
recommends medical marijuana to a patient based on a sincere medical
judgment and from initiating any investigation solely on that ground."

Even so, the U.S. Supreme Court last week barred an Oakland marijuana club
from distributing cannabis to sick patients until it decides whether that
practice is lawful.

Depending on how the court rules, its decision could close dozens of such
clubs still operating. The high court's decision doesn't hamper
Californians, for example, who want to grow small amounts of marijuana if
they have a doctor's recommendation to use it.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the suit, contended that
the government's position violates doctors' free speech rights, and that
many doctors were resisting recommending pot for fear of losing their
federal right to prescribe medication.

The 10 doctors and five of their patients involved in the suit say
marijuana can be beneficial to patients with AIDS, HIV, cancer, glaucoma,
and seizures or muscle spasms associated with chronic, debilitating conditions.

At a hearing before Alsup last month, Department of Justice lawyer Joseph
W. Lobue told the judge that federal law applies to the country no matter
how states may have voted.