WHO IS HURT WHEN THE SICK SMOKE POT

Monday's Supreme Court ruling against state-sanctioned medical
marijuana use will keep terminally ill and chronic pain sufferers from
firing up a marijuana joint, getting stoned and enjoying a temporary
reprieve from hellish suffering.

Thank goodness we've got that particular homeland security problem
under control. In the Age of Terror, one can never be too careful with
dying people.

With rulings like this, alas, comedy is doomed.

The high court's 6-3 decision, in fact, had little to do with whether
suffering people deserve relief, but whether the federal government
has authority over states that have authorized medical marijuana use.
To date, 11 states have such laws: Alaska, Arizona, California,
Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington.

The court ruled that even though medical marijuana may be homegrown
and not for sale, it nevertheless falls under the federal Controlled
Substances Act.

While lawyers hash out the legal intricacies, normal people are left
wondering whether the Supreme Court has been partaking of the evil
weed. Exceptions would be dissenters Chief Justice William Rehnquist,
and Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Clarence Thomas.

Who, after all, gets hurt when dying or sick people smoke pot? Seems
ridiculous

It seems remote to ridiculous that federal agents now will start
arresting sick people for getting high, though stranger things can and
do happen.

Who could have imagined the scene we witnessed when then-Attorney
General Janet Reno decided it was time for little Elian Gonzalez to
get on back to Cuba?

Ironically, the Supreme Court ruling follows a study by Harvard
professor Jeffrey Miron recommending that the U.S. legalize and tax
marijuana. Endorsed by some 500 economists, including Milton Friedman,
the report noted the high cost of marijuana prohibition --about $7.7
billion annually -- and the boon to the economy that an estimated $6.2
billion per year in taxes would provide.

Justice John Paul Stevens, who wrote the court's decision, offered a
glimmer of hope when he noted that Congress could change the law to
allow for medicinal uses of marijuana. By any measure, such a legal
shift is long overdue and likely would be hugely popular. Unscientific
poll

In an unscientific poll posted Monday on MSNBC's Web site,
self-selecting respondents were asked: "Should the federal government
prosecute medical marijuana users, now that it has been given the OK
by the Supreme Court?"

By midday, more than 63,000 had responded, with 88 percent saying
"no." Ten percent said "yes," and 2 percent weren't sure. (Don't
worry, two-percenters. It wears off in about three hours and then you
can make up your mind.) More than 60 groups

Otherwise, more than 60 U.S. and international health organizations,
including the American Public Health Association and the American
Nurses Association, support allowing sick people to use marijuana
under a doctor's care, according to the marijuana advocacy group
NORML. Others, including the American Cancer Society and the American
Medical Association, favor more research into the medical uses of
marijuana, according to NORML.

As absurd as Monday's ruling seems, advocates for medical marijuana
are not optimistic Congress will have the courage to pass more
reasonable marijuana laws. Whatever happened to compassionate
conservatism?

What's more conservative, after all, than getting the federal
government out of private, victimless, state-sanctioned decisions? And
what's more compassionate than letting a woman with brain cancer feel
a little less tortured during her final days? Congress can act

Congress has an opportunity to demonstrate how compassionate
conservatism works by passing a bipartisan measure -- the "States'
Rights to Medical Marijuana Act" (HR 2087) -- that recently was
reintroduced. Defeated previously, the act would reclassify marijuana
so that doctors could prescribe it under certain circumstances without
altering current laws related to recreational use.

Thanks to the triumph of common sense over Prohibition, I can drink to
that.