MEDICAL MARIJUANA STALLS

The news on the medical marijuana front, where things seemed to have taken
a turn for the better during the two-day news cycle following the release
of the Institute of Medicine report on what is known about the science
surrounding marijuana as medicine, has turned grim. California Attorney
General Bill Lockyer's meeting with "drug czar" Barry McCaffrey last week
suggests that Mr. McCaffrey is not only inclined to continue to ignore the
report he himself had commissioned, he plans to interfere actively with any
attempts to implement California's medical marijuana law.

As the Sacramento Bee reported Saturday, after meeting with Mr. McCaffrey
and Attorney General Janet Reno, Mr. Lockyer told reporters that "both were
very clear that medical marijuana use violates federal law," and that
McCaffrey said a massive additional research effort is needed before that
status can be changed. Furthermore, when Mr. Lockyer told Mr. McCaffrey
that state law authorizes him (Mr. Lockyer) to conduct or sponsor certain
kinds of marijuana-related research, McCaffrey told Lockyer he would be
violating federal law and risking arrest if he did so.

It is dismaying - an inversion of the democratic process - for an
unaccountable, appointed federal official to threaten an elected California
official with arrest for trying to implement a state law passed by the
people of the state. Mr. McCaffrey's bullying attitude is intolerable

As it happens, Mr. McCaffrey has not only set himself in opposition to the
relevant science and the wishes of the people of California and of five
other states who have recently approved the use of medical marijuana, he
also may be on shaky legal ground on several counts.

The Institute of Medicine report, which Mr. McCaffrey commissioned, not
only concluded that it does have present and potential value, it made it
clear that there is no legal basis for keeping marijuana on the federal
government's Schedule I, the strictest classification for the most
dangerous of drugs.

A petition to reschedule marijuana is now in the final stages of
consideration by the Department of Health and Human Services. A spokesman
for Mr. Lockyer said it was unclear as to whether Mr. Lockyer can file a
formal amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief on behalf of this
petition. But he can and should endorse it and urge HHS to act quickly to
reschedule marijuana. It will be almost impossible for the research Mr.
McCaffrey claims to desire to occur until this happens.

And there is a second lawsuit that Mr. Lockyer could support. Scientists
Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw and several doctors and medical research
organizations recently filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the
District of Columbia demanding that federal officials stop trying to
nullify state laws in California and elsewhere that authorize licensed
physicians to recommend or prescribe marijuana. The suit claims the federal
government lacks constitutional authority to do so, on 1st, 9th and 10th
amendment grounds, and that the Constitution's commerce clause does not
allow the federal government to regulate medical practice or the
distribution of medicine within the borders of a state (the entire lawsuit
can be viewed and downloaded at http://www.emord.com/complain.htm

The people of five states have passed laws to permit the medical use of
marijuana under doctors' supervision. One appointed official is trying to
nullify those laws. It turns out that his opposition is not just cruel to
patients who are suffering, it is unscientific (as his own report reveals)
and perhaps even illegal under the federal law he claims to be enforcing.

Attorney General Lockyer can be a hero. He should seize the day.