CLINTON ASKS SUPREME COURT TO OVERTURN MARIJUANA RULING

Appellate Decision For Oakland Cannabis Club "Flouts' Congress

The Clinton administration wants the Supreme Court to overturn an
appellate ruling that would make medical marijuana available to
seriously ill patients in Oakland, saying the ruling would flout the
will of Congress and undermine federal drug laws.

The ruling last September by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals,
which opened the door for distribution of marijuana in cases of
"medical necessity," was "directly at odds with Congress' express
finding that marijuana has no currently accepted medical use," the
Justice Department said in papers filed with the high court.

Noting that no other federal court had allowed the use of marijuana
for medical purposes apart from government-approved experiments, the
department said the ruling "threatens the government's ability to
enforce the federal drug laws in the nine states within the 9th
Circuit," with a total population of nearly 50 million.

The court is likely to decide this fall whether it will review the
case or leave the appellate decision intact.

The appeal was not surprising in light of the intense legal battle
waged by the Clinton administration against Proposition 215 since
California voters approved it in November 1996. The initiative allowed
patients to use marijuana with their doctor's recommendation without
risking prosecution under state drug laws.

But the decision to appeal disappointed state Attorney General Bill
Lockyer, who had written to U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno asking
her to leave the appellate ruling intact.

Lockyer spokesman Nathan Barankin said Friday the appellate decision
established "a thoughtful policy in this state that was not clearly
articulated in Proposition 215, and that is respectful of the needs of
sick people and also of legitimate public safety concerns."

Robert Raich, lawyer for the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative, had
a more scornful reaction. With Texas Gov. George W. Bush accusing Vice
President Al Gore of being soft on drugs, Raich said, "in response,
the Clinton-Gore administration now feels it must deny medical
cannabis patients access to the marijuana they require."

The Oakland cooperative was among several Northern California
marijuana dispensaries shut down in 1998 by U.S. District Judge
Charles Breyer in response to a Justice Department lawsuit. Breyer
agreed with the department that federal drug laws overrode Proposition
215 and ruled out a defense of necessity, the doctrine that a law can
be broken when it is the only way to prevent a more serious harm.

But the appeals court ruled last September that federal law did not
preclude a claim of necessity for patients who needed marijuana to
prevent imminent serious harm and could show that legal alternatives
were ineffective.

The court also said the Justice Department had failed to rebut
evidence offered by the cooperative and its members that marijuana was
the only effective medication for many seriously ill patients. Uses of
the drug include countering pain and nausea caused by therapies for
AIDS and cancer and preventing serious weight loss in AIDS patients.

Ordered by the court to reconsider the case, Breyer invited a Justice
Department lawyer to offer new evidence, got no response, and then
ruled July 17 that the Oakland cooperative could provide marijuana to
any of its more than 2,000 patients who could show medical necessity.
The Justice Department is also appealing that ruling.

In Friday's Supreme Court appeal, the department said Congress, in
passing laws against marijuana, had given federal law enforcement and
health officials the responsibility to decide when such drugs could be
distributed and used for medical purposes, under government-approved
experiments.

"It has not left that determination to individual courts or juries --
much less to private organizations like the Oakland Cannabis Buyers'
Cooperative," department lawyers wrote. They also said the appellate
ruling would encourage distributors of other banned drugs, such as
heroin and LSD, to assert a medical necessity defense.