COURT RULES AGAINST PATIENTS

Only Time Will Tell Effect on Isle Users

It's going to take a lot more than a U.S. Supreme Court ruling to stop
Rhonda Robison and her husband John from using a medicine they credit with
restoring their ability to live normal lives.

"We still have a need for it," Rhonda Robison said about medicinal
marijuana Monday. Rhonda and John are among the 2,596 state patients,
including 1,343 on the Big Island, holding medical permits that let them
smoke marijuana under doctor prescription. Rhonda, 34, said she has been
suffering from multiple sclerosis her entire life, while her husband John
uses medicinal marijuana to combat the severe side effects from
chemotherapy and radiation for leukemia, with which he has been grappling
for 13 years.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that federal agents can arrest people
who use marijuana as medicine, even when state law allows its use.

Rhonda has been using medicinal marijuana to stop muscle dislocation since
2000, when Hawaii became the eighth state to allow the drug to be
prescribed by doctors for medicinal purposes. Since starting the marijuana
regimen, Rhonda said that although she still has muscle spasms, the painful
dislocation has virtually stopped, and she hasn't been to the emergency
room in four years.

"It's been great not to have to go to the hospital regularly," the
Kailua-Kona resident said. "They would give me Demerol or morphine for the
pain and I would be sick for three days after. I don't like drugs or
putting those kind of chemicals in my body."

But now Rhonda said she's worried that her access to marijuana will be
restricted and that she and her husband could face prosecution under the
ruling.

"It's a bigger issue about rights than just medicinal marijuana itself,"
Rhonda said. "The constitution grants the states rights. ... If they take
this state right away, what other rights are going to be taken from us? ...
The federal government has made that decision. At least the prosecutors
have the choice (on whether to prosecute users)."

And according to prosecutors, the 6-3 ruling by the court shouldn't
dramatically change the way the state handles the issue, state Attorney
General Mark Bennett said.

"I don't think that the decision is likely to have a large impact because I
don't think this was an unexpected decision," he said.

The state Department of Public Safety's Narcotics Enforcement Division said
they will continue to distribute permits for medicinal marijuana until they
are "told otherwise," spokesman Michael Gaede said.

Big Island Prosecuting Attorney Jay Kimura said his office will continue to
prosecute pot cases that exceed the state allowance for medicinal use. But
enforcement at the local level of federal drug laws shouldn't change much
in light of the Supreme Court's ruling, he said.

The ruling also will not trump medical marijuana laws in 10 other states,
including California, Alaska, Colorado, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon,
Vermont and Washington. However, the decision could make it more difficult
for other states to adopt similar laws.

"Medicinal marijuana is dead," Hawaii U.S. Attorney Edward Kubo said. "It's
no longer even a convenient legal excuse in federal court. ... Congress, in
their wisdom, have decided that distribution of marijuana in any form is
illegal. The Supreme Court ruling today upheld that Congress had a rational
basis for that and state law cannot trump federal law in that area." Kubo
said that they are awaiting word from the Department of Justice on how
cases of medicinal marijuana possession or distribution will be handle in
the 10 states that allow its use.

The Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii, a nonprofit established in 1993 to support
effective drug policies, criticized the ruling, saying taxpayers' money
should not be spent to raid the homes of people with life-threatening diseases.

But the group noted that the decision wouldn't affect Hawaii's medical
marijuana program because it "focuses on issues of federal versus state
powers."

And for Rhonda Robison, the ruling doesn't end the long fight over the
benefits of pot for certain patients.

"I don't know what it means for me, but I don't think the fight is over,"
Rhonda said. "There is still hope through Congress and legislation. We
haven't totally given up hope yet."