DAZED AND CONFUSED

ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA

A recent court ruling is welcome, but more change is needed.

You be the judge: Before you is an AIDS patient charged with posses-sing
marijuana. He pleads that the prescription drugs he takes to bolster his
weakened immune system suppress his appetite and leave him chronically
nauseous and underweight.

The defendant testifies that smoking pot is the only way he can tolerate
the food that he needs to survive, and he cites a National Institute of
Medicine study to back him up. The two-year study released in March
con-firms that smoking marijuana is effective in treating the pain, nausea
and the severe weight loss common in cases of full-blown AIDS.

After hearing this evidence, you (a) jail the defendant because the law's
the law; (b) free him and order the cops to leave him alone; (c) give him
probation and warn him to go and toke no more -- even if abstaining brings
pain, suffering and a higher risk of death.

If this scenario leaves you a bit dazed and confused, welcome to the
bizarre matrix of state and federal laws, rules and policies now guiding a
criminal-justice system clumsily trying to cope with issues more properly
left to doctors and their patients.

A recent ruling by the Florida Supreme Court, while clearly correct, did
little to clarify the larger issues. The court ruled that an appeals court
was right in holding that a trial judge erred in refusing to con-sider a
defendant's argument that his use of marijuana was a ``medical necessity.''

While judges hearing similar cases are now on notice to allow such
testimony, trial verdicts may be unaffected. So patients using marijuana
for medical purposes still assume a legal risk.

Moreover, even if the dispute in Florida ultimately is resolved -- by the
courts or the Legislature -- in favor of legalizing the use of medical
marijuana with a doctor's prescription, the feds strongly oppose allowing
the states any discretion in these matters.

Although Florida law has taken a tiny step forward, patients using
marijuana for medical reasons won't be safe from prosecution until the
federal government starts using medical science instead of myths and
political expediency when formulating its policies on drugs.