MEDICINAL MARIJUANA USE FACES TEST IN DC

WASHINGTON - The government's ban on using marijuana for medicinal purposes
will be tested in the nation's capital as a woman suffering from multiple
sclerosis stands trial for lighting a joint in a congressman's office. Renee
Emry Wolfe said taking a few puffs of marijuana is the only way she gets
relief when her muscles go into spasm from the disease she has had for two
decades.

For Wolfe, "having a joint is like an asthmatic having a bronchial inhaler,"
said her attorney, Jeff Orchard.

Last Sept. 15, Wolfe lit a marijuana cigarette in the office of Rep. Bill
McCollum, R-Fla., to bring attention to the issue of medical marijuana.

"This patient has run out of patience," Wolfe, a 38-year-old mother of three
from Ann Arbor, Mich., said in an interview.

"It's an uphill battle that I'm fighting," she said after Superior Court
Judge Anita Josey-Herring set an April 26 trial date. "I feel that if I have
to talk to every judge in this country to get things changed, I will."

Channing Phillips, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office here, said
prosecutors are pushing the case because "possession of marijuana is against
the law" in the District of Columbia.

A growing national debate is ensuing over the use of marijuana for medical
reasons.

Voters in six states - California, Arizona, Alaska, Oregon, Nevada and
Washington - have approved measures in the last few years allowing use of
marijuana for medical reasons. Congress barred the District of Columbia from
counting the voting results from a similar ballot initiative last fall.

The New England Journal of Medicine has editorialized in favor of medical
marijuana and the American Medical Association, altering its policy, voted
to urge the National Institutes of Health to support more research on the
subject.

Last fall, Wolfe went to McCollum's office to protest his resolution that
day on the House floor, which said marijuana is a dangerous and addictive
drug and should not be legalized for medical use. McCollum is chairman of
the House Judiciary Committee's crime panel.

In his legal argument, Orchard contends that Wolfe started to feel tense
when McCollum's aides did not want to talk with her, and she lit the
marijuana cigarette because she felt her symptoms returning. When she gets
attacks, her hands shake and she loses control of her legs.

However, McCollum aide Shannon Gravitte said she spoke to Wolfe. Gravitte
said the incident seemed like a publicity stunt because Wolfe had brought
several cameras and a reporter with her.

"She was very calm and almost immediately lit up the joint," Gravitte said.

Wolfe was arrested and spent several hours in jail. Charged with a
misdemeanor, she would face up to 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine if
convicted.

Prosecutors contend a medical defense does not apply because there was no
immediate danger to Wolfe, and there was a legal medical alternative
available.

"The evidence overwhelmingly establishes that her real purpose was to
conduct a protest in the United States Capitol in order to publicize her
position regarding the marijuana laws," prosecutors wrote in a legal brief.

Orchard said jail time could hurt her health: "Right now, she does not
always have to be in a wheelchair. If she does 180 days without any
(marijuana), she will always be in a wheelchair."