STATE JUSTICES HEAR DEBATE ON USE OF POT FOR ILLNESSES

TALLAHASSEE -- Three weeks after U.S. health experts recommended
marijuana use for some patients, the Florida Supreme Court took up the
issue, hearing oral arguments Wednesday on whether seriously ill
people have the right to smoke pot for medicinal purposes. The Florida
case involves a 61-year-old Panhandle man who smokes the illegal
substance to keep his glaucoma at bay and lessen the nausea caused by
transplant drugs that he must take so his body doesn't reject a kidney.

``It kills the sickness so I can eat and I can see,'' George Sowell
said in a telephone interview after his lawyer pleaded his case before
the high court. ``I'm a law-abiding man, but I'm not going to sit here
and go blind.'

Sowell was convicted of cultivating and possessing marijuana in 1995.
Police said they found nearly 70 plants capable of yielding up to half
a pound of smokeable pot on Sowell's property in Chipley. Sowell tried
to claim the crop was medically necessary, but the trial judge refused
to hear the defense. An appeals court, however, overturned his
conviction, finding that Sowell could use the argument as a defense.

The state attorney general appealed that ruling to the Supreme Court,
which will issue a ruling later this year.

The state contends the Legislature prohibited medical marijuana use in
1993, after a 1991 court case that upheld the right of an HIV-infected
couple to smoke marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Assistant Attorney General Giselle Lylen Rivera said the Legislature
outlawed the use when it rewrote a state law, saying drugs such as
marijuana have no ``medical purpose.''

She noted that the law was changed to allow patients to take a legal
alternative of pot -- a synthetic version of the active component in
marijuana.

``He could have gotten a doctor's prescription,' Rivera said.

``Because the Legislature has added this in, it has done away with
medical necessity as a defense to smoking marijuana in this state.''
Sowell's attorney, John Daniel, said the Legislature did not wipe out
the medical necessity defense when it rewrote the law.

``You're not suggesting the Legislature can't do this?'' Chief Justice
Major Harding asked Daniel.

`You're just saying they haven't done it?''

``Yes, your honor,'' Daniel replied. ``And I hope they never
do.''

That's unlikely. The attorney general's office predicted after the
hearing that even if the court finds that medical necessity can be
used as a defense for smoking marijuana, the Legislature would try to
close the loophole.

``If they say the law does not have clarity, I would suspect there
would be an intent by the Legislature to rule it out as a defense,''
said Carolyn Snurkowski, assistant deputy attorney general.

The measure would likely get Gov. Jeb Bush's approval. A spokesman for
the governor said he is ``adamantly opposed' to medical marijuana use.

The justices appeared troubled that current law does not spell out
that medical use of marijuana is prohibited.

``Isn't it a better policy to have the Legislature clearly state we no
longer recognize this particular defense rather than speculate on what
they intended?'' Justice Barbara Pariente asked.

Sowell said he hopes the ambiguity in the law can be used to pry open
the door for legalized use of medical marijuana.

``There's people out there that need it worse than I do, and they'd be
using it if it were legal,'' Sowell said. ``They know it's just good
medicine. This is medicine that God put here.''

The debate in Florida comes three weeks after the national Institute
of Medicine recommended that marijuana cigarettes be made available
for short periods to help cancer and AIDS patients who can find no
other relief for their pain and nausea.

The report from the Institute, an arm of the National Academy of
Sciences, found that compounds in marijuana have the potential to ease
some pain and suffering associated with certain diseases.

Battles over medical marijuana have been fought across the nation
since 1996, when California passed a ballot initiative that removed
state penalties from people who used marijuana for medicinal purposes.
Since then, Arizona, Alaska, Oregon, Nevada and Washington state have
passed laws permitting the use of medical marijuana. A group in
Florida has tried since 1997 to collect enough signatures on a
petition to legalize medical marijuana.

Some mainstream medical organizations and the New
England Journal of Medicine have endorsed its use.