MEDICAL MARIJUANA PROPONENTS SEEK HOUSE VOTE TODAY

WASHINGTON - Advocates for medical marijuana hope a recent setback in the
Supreme Court will boost their strength in Congress, and lawmakers from
California and New York plan to force a House vote on the issue today.

Reps. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach, and Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y.,
have long supported allowing patients to use marijuana in states where it
can be legally prescribed by a doctor. They will offer an amendment to a
spending bill today that would bar federal authorities from making arrests
in such cases.

"This is a responsibility Congress should face up to," said Hinchey. He
said the court's decision is a call for legislators to act.

The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on June 6 that federal drug laws trump medical
marijuana statutes in 10 states, allowing federal authorities to prosecute
people who smoke marijuana for pain relief on the recommendation of their
doctors.

Under a voter-approved law, California allows people to smoke marijuana
with a doctor's recommendation; New York does not.

After the decision, federal officials said their focus has been on
criminals engaged in drug trafficking, not the sick and dying.

Medical marijuana advocates, including the two California women who brought
the case, say the decision only puts more pressure on Congress to craft a
caring policy for those who want to treat their health problems with marijuana.

And California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has in the past supported
pot use by the sick, said the ruling means "it is now up to Congress to
provide clarity."

In the past two years, the Hinchey and Rohrabacher amendment has mustered
only about 150 of 435 votes in the House, and even its boosters concede
there is little chance of passage Tuesday.

"I believe that there is strong sentiment in Congress that would be in
support of such a measure. However, in this climate of a Bush
administration I'm not holding my breath," said San Francisco Supervisor
Ross Mirkarimi.

Mirkarimi planned to introduce a board resolution Tuesday calling on House
Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, to formally organize
Democratic caucus support for the Hinchey and Rohrabacher measure.

Pelosi's spokeswoman, Jennifer Crider, said Pelosi backed the amendment and
was talking to fellow lawmakers about it, but that support for the measure
wasn't a caucus position.

Opposition to Hinchey's amendment is being organized by Rep. Mark Souder,
R-Ind., who heads the House drug policy subcommittee.

Souder dismisses the effort as a political, not scientific, attempt to
gradually legalize marijuana. The lawmaker argues that if scientific data
supports marijuana as a pain medication, it should be studied and vetted
through the regular FDA process.

Hinchey dismisses such arguments. He said even if Congress isn't ready to
accept it, public opinion in the nation has rejected past concerns about
marijuana usage leading to other forms of drug abuse.

Bill Piper of the Drug Policy Alliance, a group that supports laws allowing
medical marijuana, said they hope to pick up about 10 votes.

"That would send a message to the Justice Department that there are
political consequences to their actions," said Piper. "If the Justice
Department realizes momentum is building on this amendment, they're going
to be less likely to go into states like California and arrest people for
medical marijuana."

The ten states with statutes that permit doctors to prescribe medical
marijuana are California, Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada,
Oregon, Vermont, and Washington state.