SUPPLYING MEDICAL MARIJUANA BARRED

Supreme Court Prohibits Distribution Of Drug In California

WASHINGTON, Aug. 29 -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday barred distribution of
marijuana to people in California whose doctors recommend it for medicinal
purposes. The court, voting 7-1 to grant an emergency Clinton
administration request, postponed the effect of federal court rulings that
would have allowed a California club to distribute the illegal drug for
medicinal use.

Government lawyers had sought emergency help from Justice Sandra Day
O'Connor, who referred the request to the full court. Only Justice John
Paul Stevens dissented. He said the government ``has failed to demonstrate
that the denial of necessary medicine to seriously ill and dying patients
will advance the public interest or that the failure to enjoin the
distribution of such medicine will impair the orderly enforcement of
federal criminal statutes.'' Justice Stephen G. Breyer disqualified himself
from the case. His brother, Charles, a federal trial judge in San
Francisco, previously had barred distribution of marijuana only to have his
decision reversed by a federal appeals court. The highest court's action,
which came in a brief order, was the latest development in a conflict
between federal narcotics laws and a 1996 California voters' initiative
known as Proposition 215. The state initiative allows seriously ill
patients to grow and use marijuana for pain relief, with a doctor's
recommendation, without state penalties. But federal law says marijuana has
no medical purposes and cannot be administered safely under medical
supervision. Initiatives similar to California's have been passed in
Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington state. Slide
show: Patients who advocate use In the California case, the 9th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that ``medical necessity'' is a ``legally
cognizable defense'' to a charge of distributing drugs in violation of a
federal law, the Controlled Substances Act. Because of that ruling, Judge
Charles Breyer said the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative could provide
marijuana to people facing imminent harm from serious medical conditions
and for whom legal alternatives to marijuana do not work or cause
intolerable side effects.

Justice Department lawyers called the 9th Circuit court's ``unprecedented
ruling'' a dangerous one because it created ``incentives for drug
manufacturers and distributors to invoke the asserted needs of others as a
justification for their drug trafficking.'' The government's emergency
request said allowing such distribution of marijuana would ``promote
disrespect and disregard for an act of Congress that is central to
combating illicit drug trafficking and use by giving a judicial stamp of
approval to the open and notorious distribution of (illegal) substances to
potentially thousands of users without any of the strict controls
required'' by federal law. In response, lawyers for the marijuana club
argued that the government's emergency request be rejected. ``The
government has provided no evidence that states ... that have passed
medical cannabis laws have any difficulty prosecuting violations of their
drug statutes,'' they said. Waiting to inhale: hemp for health?