STATES' MEDICAL POT LAWS GET HIGH COURT HEARING

The Supreme Court today was hearing arguments in a case that will
determine whether patients in California and 10 other states can
continue to use marijuana for medical purposes.

At issue is whether states have the right to adopt laws allowing the
use of drugs the federal government has banned or whether federal drug
agents can arrest individuals for abiding by those medical marijuana
laws.

California passed the nation's first so-called medical marijuana law
in 1996, allowing patients to smoke and grow marijuana with a doctor's
recommendation. The Bush administration argues that those laws violate
federal drug rules and asserts that marijuana has no medical value.