CONSIDER THE CONSEQUENCES OF LIGHTING UP

Supreme Court Says Government Can Prosecute Medical Marijuana
Patients

Local medical marijuana users say while they're disappointed with
Monday's Supreme Court ruling validating federal prosecution of people
who use pot for pain, they won't stop smoking.

Law enforcement officials, meanwhile, say they'll continue prosecuting
only users who violate their permit terms or lack authorization
required to smoke marijuana. Yet the state may stop issuing new
permits while impacts of the high court's ruling are analyzed.

"Nothing's changed really," said Rhonda Robison, a Kalaoa resident
authorized since 2001 to use marijuana to treat pain and muscle spasms
caused by an undiagnosed form of muscular dystrophy.

However, Robison said she might stop growing her own supply as a
result of the Supreme Court's 6-3 ruling.

"That's pretty much the only effect that it's had," Robison said,
adding the court ruling has not made her more fearful of being arrested.

Big Island police arrested Robison and her husband, John, for
marijuana possession on July 8, 2002. Officers said their plants, and
the plants of a house guest also authorized to use pot, were not
labeled to distinguish the individual owners.

The Robisons sued Hawaii County and received a $30,000 settlement last
November, Rhonda Robison said.

She credited marijuana use with saving the life of her husband, whom
was given three days to live when he was diagnosed with leukemia in
1992. He is still alive today, she said.

"He's been using medical marijuana since his diagnoses," Robison
said.

Monday's ruling gives the federal government an "open book on which
distributor to attack first," suggested Jonathan Adler, first
authorized in December 1999 to use pot to treat chronic pain caused by
a broken neck.

"Medical marijuana has been dealt a really bad blow," said Adler, who
considers himself among the people who convinced the Legislature to
enact the law.

Nine other states also allow the drug's use to treat various
illnesses.

Adler, who has served jail time for pot possession, said the ruling
has not made him more worried about being prosecuted.

"Why would I be worried if I was legal?" he asked.

Adler, a reverend in the East Hawaii branch of the Religion of Jesus
Church, said he feels his use is protected as a religious activity
since his church uses marijuana as a sacrament.

Police said they won't change their approach to law enforcement.

"For right now, it's status quo. I don't see how this Supreme Court
decision has changed anything," Hawaii County Police Chief Lawrence
Mahuna said. "I don't see us going out and pursuing people with
medical marijuana certificates."

Mahuna, however, cautioned that people with too many plants or who
break other conditions of their marijuana permits risk
prosecution.

Since medical marijuana is legal under state law, police couldn't go
after an authorized user in state court, Mahuna said. Rather, police
would need the assistance of a federal prosecutor, he said, adding
that's highly unlikely because the number of plants and quantity of
dried marijuana allowed under the state program is too small to get a
federal prosecutor's attention.

Hawaii County Prosecutor Jay Kimura said the Supreme Court's
"well-reasoned decision" won't change his policy toward medical
marijuana users.

"Based on this decision, we would prosecute cases that exceed the
state law," Kimura said.

People who use the drug according to their permit terms are a "federal
matter" when it comes to possible prosecution.

Hawaii Attorney General Mark Bennett also suggested the court's ruling
won't have much of a local impact, adding he expects a wait-an-see
approach from law enforcement officials.

Enforcement falls largely to the state Department of Public Safety,
which administers Hawaii's medical marijuana program, and the state
Department of Health, Bennett said.

"If the status quo just remains, I don't think it will have much
impact," he said.

Big Islanders account for 1,343 of the 2,596 Hawaii residents
authorized as of May 31 to use marijuana as medicine, said Mike Gaede,
state Department of Public Safety spokesman.

The department will continue issuing certificates -- the statewide
number of participants is up 500 from a year ago -- requested by
doctors authorized to prescribed narcotics, he said.

"But we do anticipate possibly putting the certificate program on
hold" while officials figure out what's happening, he said. "Whatever
the attorney general tells us to do, we'll do."