MEDICAL CANNABIS USE TAKES A BLOW FROM CONGRESS

The United States Supreme Court decides medical marijuana case.

In case No. 03-1454. Argued November 29, 2004--Decided June 6, 2005

From the United States Supreme Court Syllabus that comes along with it's
ruling:

"California's Compassionate Use Act authorizes limited marijuana use for
medicinal purposes. Respondents Raich and Monson are California residents
who both use doctor-recommended marijuana for serious medical conditions.
After federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents seized and
destroyed all six of Monson's cannabis plants, respondents brought this
action seeking injunctive and declaratory relief prohibiting the
enforcement of the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA) to the extent it
prevents them from possessing, obtaining, or manufacturing cannabis for
their personal medical use. Respondents claim that enforcing the CSA
against them would violate the Commerce Clause and other constitutional
provisions. The District Court denied respondents' motion for a preliminary
injunction, but the Ninth Circuit reversed, finding that they had
demonstrated a strong likelihood of success on the claim that the CSA is an
unconstitutional exercise of Congress' Commerce Clause authority as applied
to the intrastate, noncommercial cultivation and possession of cannabis for
personal medical purposes as recommended by a patient's physician pursuant
to valid California state law. The court relied heavily on United States v.
Lopez, U.S. 549, and United States v. Morrison, 529 U.S. 20 598, to hold
that this separate class of purely local activities was beyond the reach of
federal power.

Held: Congress' Commerce Clause authority includes the power to prohibit
the local cultivation and use of marijuana in compliance with California
law. Pp. 6-31." The reform community is in a defensive posture after a
ruling is handed down confirming the far-reaching ability of the federal
drug police given them by acts of congress.

It is a foregone conclusion that this loss has hit many very hard. I refer
you to my previous column where I list individuals who may face immediate
negative effects from this ruling. But is this loss a bad thing for the
overall efforts to remove criminal penalties for medicinal use of Cannabis
or against efforts to make Cannabis more available to those patients who
need it? I don't think so.

There is an old saying in law that the best way to get rid of a bad law is
to enforce it. Perhaps with a clear defeat here the United States Congress
will finally get off it's high horse and correct the injustice that was
created in 1970 when the "new" law called the CSA would, for the first time
ever, outlaw the medicinal use of Cannabis.

There are other avenues that must be explored as well. A coalition of
thousands of patients finds its headquarters right here in Virginia near
Charlottesville. This coalition has as one of its leaders a renowned
researcher, who also calls Virginia home, Jon Gettman. Jon made the
following report in High Times magazine on October 8, 2002, "The Coalition
for Rescheduling Cannabis, the largest coalition in the history of drug
policy reform, has launched an extensive legal and scientific challenge to
the Drug Enforcement Administration's prohibition of medical cannabis use
in the United States. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) asserts
that cannabis has no medical value and that public support for medical
marijuana use is based on misperceptions about its safety and
effectiveness. The DEA also asserts that cannabis has a high potential for
abuse similar to that of cocaine and heroin. The DEA makes these claims not
only to justify their refusal to let cannabis be used medically, but also
to justify the arrest and harassment of patients and caregivers, both in
states that have given legal approval to marijuana's medical use and in the
rest of the nation."

The DEA has never provided comprehensive scientific evidence to support
their self-serving accusations about the medical use of cannabis; they
claim these assertions are true simply because they, the DEA, say they are
true, as if the laws of the United States gives them the exclusive power to
dictate what are and what are not the true findings of scientific research.

The tool with which to force the DEA to recognize and fulfill their
statutory obligation to facilitate medical access to cannabis is an obscure
administrative regulatory process know as "rescheduling". The process
requires the DEA to re-evaluate, and if it can, re-justify its prohibition
on medical access to cannabis.

The administrative petition being filed by the Coalition for Rescheduling
Cannabis is a comprehensive review of recent scientific literature
regarding each of these important issues. Numerous patient advocacy and
drug policy reform organizations, along with this author and HIGH TIMES,
have joined together in this Coalition to mount a sustained and
comprehensive challenge to the DEA's prohibition on access to medical
cannabis and refute the federal government's ongoing misinformation
campaign about cannabis and the scientific record. Participating in the
Coalition are the American Alliance for Medical Cannabis, Americans for
Safe Access, California NORML, the Drug Policy Forum of Texas, Iowans for
Medical Cannabis, the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Cooperative, the
National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws, New Mexicans for
Compassionate Use, the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative, Patients Out of
Time as well as other interested individuals.

As of this writing Jon's petition has passed DEA scrutiny and has been
passed on to HHS where it now sits awaiting divine intervention.

One of the organizations leading this effort, Patients Out of Time, out of
Howardsville, Virginia has conducted three college level courses at US
universities with the last here in Charlottesville last year. They have
never had one person come forward to ever dispute the truth of any of the
hundred or so Lectures conducted at their bi-annual conferences. Patients
Out of Times next conference will be in Santa Barbara, California in 2006
and there is an effort being conducted to bring in state law makers from
around the country to learn the truth about Cannabis as medicine. Please
suggest attendance to your legislator and contact Patients Out of Time as
well. You can find more information about the next conference at their
website: http://www.medicalcannabis.com/

Tonite I will pray that we quickly find a way out of this dark time. I have
spent a great deal of time volunteering with very, very sick individuals
and I have seen Cannabis remove dozens of lines of pain from a struggling
patients face in seconds. The DEA has a powerful weapon in their hands and
I think their future perhaps even their soul is on the line in how they
wield it. Dear Lord I pray that you guide the DEA to act responsibly and
with compassion and I pray you watch over those in pain tonite so they know
they are not alone.