JUSTICE DEPT PLEDGES TO RESIST MARIJUANA LAW

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Department of Justice on Thursday pledged to
continue resisting California's voter-approved medical marijuana law,
arguing the government has the right to penalize doctors who recommend
cannabis by revoking their licenses to dispense medication.

Justice department lawyers argued their position in U.S. District
Court here during what may be the final stage of a lawsuit brought by
the American Civil Liberties Union.

The ACLU contends that the government's position violates doctors'
free speech rights, and that many doctors now resist recommending pot
for fear of losing their federal right to prescribe medication.

U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup was expected to rule within
weeks, lawyers said, and the ruling could have broad implications for
several states with similar laws.

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

Department of Justice lawyer Joseph W. Lobue told the judge that the
government doesn't care whether California voters approved the
Compassionate Use Act, which allows patients to grow and possess
marijuana for medical use with a doctor's recommendation.

"It doesn't matter what California says," Lobue argued.

Arguing that federal law applies to the country no matter how states
may have voted, Lobue said the government would take the same position
"in Oklahoma if they had that law."

California Attorney General Bill Lockyer has urged Attorney General
Janet Reno to ease the federal government's resistance to California's
attempts to implement its initiative.

"The voters in my state have endorsed the medicinal use of marijuana,"
Lockyer wrote to Reno in October.