MEDICAL MARIJUANA BACKERS PLEASED BY JUSTICES' DECISION

Supreme Court to Hear Case on California Law

Marin's medical marijuana advocates applauded yesterday's U.S. Supreme
Court decision to hear a case that could determine whether sick people
who smoke pot on a doctor's orders are subject to a federal ban.

"The case is so strong. We are delighted the Supreme Court will be
hearing our evidence," said Lynnette Shaw, director of the
Fairfax-based Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana, which is not
directly involved in the legal case. "This is going to expose (the
Bush administration's) rotten underbelly just before the election. I
couldn't be more pleased."

The court agreed to hear the Bush administration's appeal of a case it
lost last year involving two California women who say marijuana is the
only drug that helps alleviate their chronic pain and other medical
problems.

The high court will hear the case next winter. It was among eight new
cases the court added to its calendar for the coming term. The current
term is expected to end this week.

The marijuana case came to the Supreme Court after the San
Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in December
that a federal law outlawing marijuana does not apply to California
patients whose doctors have prescribed the drug.

In its 2-1 decision, the appeals court said prosecuting medical
marijuana users under the federal Controlled Substances Act is
unconstitutional if the marijuana is not sold, transported across
state lines or used for non-medicinal purposes.

Judge Harry Pregerson wrote for the appeals court majority that
smoking pot on the advice of a doctor is "different in kind from drug
trafficking." The court added that "this limited use is clearly
distinct from the broader illicit drug market."

In its appeal to the justices, the government argued that state laws
making exceptions for "medical marijuana" are trumped by federal drug
laws.

Congress passed the Controlled Substances Act to control "all
manufacturing, possession and distribution of any" drug it lists, Bush
administration Supreme Court lawyer Theodore Olson wrote.

"That goal cannot be achieved if the intrastate manufacturing,
possession and distribution of a drug may occur without any federal
regulation."

California's 1996 medical marijuana law allows people to grow, smoke
or obtain marijuana for medical needs with a doctor's recommendation.
Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and
Washington state have laws similar to California. Thirty-five states
have passed legislation recognizing marijuana's medicinal value.

In states with medical marijuana laws, doctors can give written or
oral recommendations on marijuana to patients with cancer, HIV and
other serious illnesses.

The case concerned two seriously ill California women, Angel Raich and
Diane Monson. The two had sued Attorney General John Ashcroft, asking
for a court order letting them smoke, grow or obtain marijuana without
fear of federal prosecution.

Raich, a 38-year-old Oakland woman suffering from ailments including
scoliosis, a brain tumor, chronic nausea, fatigue and pain, smokes
marijuana every few hours. She said she was partly paralyzed until she
started smoking pot.

In 2001, the Supreme Court ruled that members-only clubs that had
formed to distribute medical marijuana could not claim their activity
was protected by "medical necessity," even if patients have a doctor's
recommendation to use the drug.

Last fall, however, the high court refused to hear a separate Bush
administration request to consider whether the federal government can
punish doctors for recommending the drug to sick patients.

Shaw said she is an old friend of Raich's who, like herself, is from
the Stockton area. In the late 1990s, supplies were limited and
Raich's husband at the time did not approve of the use of medical
marijuana, Shaw said. Shaw used to bring her brownies with the plant
baked in the dessert and a small amount to smoke.

For her friend, marijuana has made a dramatic difference, Shaw
said.

"I know that it has been a blessing in her life and she has blessed
us," Shaw said, referring to Raich's contribution to the medical
marijuana movement by pursuing the legal case. "I'm very proud of her."