MEDICAL MARIJUANA ADVOCATES IMPLORE CONGRESS FOR REFORM

WASHINGTON (AP) -- With a key Supreme Court decision on medical
marijuana pending, advocates pleaded with Congress on Wednesday to let
patients use the drug without fear of federal prosecution.

"It is absolutely cruel that the federal government does not allow us
the right to use this medicine," said Angel Raich of Oakland, Calif.,
who began using marijuana to combat the pain of a brain tumor and
filed the lawsuit that's before the court.

"It is not easy for us patients that really need this medicine to come
out here, to have to fight for our lives on this kind of level," she
said.

Raich was joined at a Capitol Hill news conference by talk show host
Montel Williams, who said legal painkillers don't help his multiple
sclerosis, and by a bipartisan group of lawmakers who endorsed
legislation allowing states to make their own rules on medical marijuana.

Ten states have laws that allow residents to use marijuana for medical
purposes -- California, Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Nevada,
Maine, Montana, Hawaii and Vermont.

Despite such laws, the Supreme Court refused four years ago to protect
distributors of marijuana from federal anti-drug charges. Now justices
are deliberating whether federal drug agents can go after patients in
the states where the drug is allowed for medical purposes.

That's the case Raich and another California woman, Diane Monson,
brought after federal agents confiscated marijuana plants from
Monson's yard.

A ruling could come as early as May 16, and while Raich and others
hope it will be favorable they also want Congress to act. Past
attempts to pass legislation allowing states to make their own medical
marijuana laws have not succeeded, but five lawmakers from opposite
ends of the political spectrum said Wednesday they'd keep trying.

"The notion that a state-sanctioned practice of medicine ought to be
criminalized really makes no sense," said Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.,
who said he was reintroducing the States' Rights to Medical Marijuana
Act.

Reps. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., and Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., said
they would offer an amendment to a spending bill on the House floor to
bar the Justice Department from using federal funds to prosecute
medical marijuana use.

"It makes no sense at all to have the federal government overriding a
vote of the people of a state on what should be criminalized and what
shouldn't be criminalized in terms of personal consumption,"
Rohrabacher said.

Also supporting the legislative moves were Reps. Sam Farr, D-Calif.,
and Ron Paul, R-Texas.

"This is about access for people in pain," Farr said.