MARIJUANA DEBATE NOT OVER

The 9th Circuit's Ruling Isn't The Last Word On The Constitutional Issue

Tuesday's federal Appeals Court ruling gives some hope to chronically ill
people using marijuana for nausea and pain relief. But it' s not the first
salvo fired in the battle over medical marijuana and it won't be the last.

California's 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is widely regarded as the
nation's most liberal. And even so, the three judges who ruled on the case
split 2-1.

The issue in the case is whether the federal Controlled Substances Act of
1970 takes precedence over nine state laws passed in recent years that
legalize the possession and use of marijuana for strictly limited medical
purposes.

The U.S. Justice Department argues that states have no power to overrule
the federal law, and therefore federal drug authorities can prosecute
people for doing something their states have legalized. The appeals panel
disagreed.

The judges drew a distinction between criminal drug trafficking and medical
marijuana use. As long as the marijuana is not sold, transported across
state lines or used for non-medicinal purposes, they said, prosecuting
users for drug trafficking is unconstitutional.

The ruling relies on the Commerce Clause of the Constitution, which gives
Congress the power to regulate interstate commerce and to overrule state
laws in the process. The Commerce Clause has been invoked countless times
over the years to justify exercising federal power; in this case, a court
has used it to overrule that power.

Whether this ruling will stand for long is anyone's guess. In any case, the
9th Circuit has no jurisdiction over Maine or Colorado, two of the nine
medical-marijuana states.

Unless the Supreme Court weighs in on the issue, the debate over medical
marijuana and federal drug-enforcement power will only be resolved if
Congress acts. Certainly no one envisioned state laws permitting marijuana
use for medical purposes when the Controlled Substances Act was adopted
more than three decades ago.

We have consistently supported the right of Oregon voters to decide this
issue for themselves. We continue to view the Justice Department's
intransigence on this issue as a colossal waste of federal law enforcement
resources that could be better spent going after criminal trafficking of
far more dangerous drugs.

Not So Far After All

The stories and pictures in Wednesday's paper were evidence of how far
we've come in 100 years - and a reminder that, in the 21st century, flight
is still not always a sure thing.

The top photo on page 3B showed a replica of the "Wright flyer," built at
the turn of the century by Wilbur and Orville Wright and flown for the
first time on Dec. 17, 1903. The plane was pictured with the edge of a wing
in a large puddle of water. The weather - something humankind has yet to
master - made things tough on Dec. 17, 2003, at Kill Devil Hills, N.C.

The photo below showed a rocket plane privately developed for manned
suborbital space flights. It broke the sound barrier Wednesday during its
first powered flight. But the supersonic achievement was marred by a
partial landing gear collapse that caused SpaceShipOne to veer off a Mojave
Airport runway.

In these days of routine air travel across the globe, it's easy to take
technology for granted. As anyone can tell you who has found themselves
stuck in an airport because a plane had mechanical trouble.