9TH US COURT PROTECTS POT PATIENTS

San Francisco may be free to grow medical marijuana without recriminations
from the Federal Government after an appeals court ruled Tuesday that a law
outlawing marijuana may not apply to sick people with a doctor's
recommendation in states that have approved medical marijuana laws.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, ruling 2-1, said prosecuting these
medical marijuana users under a 1970 federal law is unconstitutional if the
marijuana isn't sold, transported across state lines or used for
non-medicinal purposes.

The decision was a blow to the Justice Department, which argued that
medical marijuana laws in nine states, including California, were trumped
by the Controlled Substances Act, which outlawed the drug.

California has allowed medical marijuana use on patients with a doctor's
prescription since 1996.

Celebrated marijuana advocate Ed Rosenthal, who was convicted of growing
medical pot in Oakland, called the decision, "tremendous news for medical
marijuana patients all over California."

"It says that patients who are not involved in interstate commerce are not
subject to the federal law and that they are doing nothing illegal,"
Rosenthal told The Examiner. "That means patients don't have to worry about
the federal government."

Rosenthal said the vast majority of medical marijuana dispensed in the Bay
Area is locally grown.

While medical marijuana advocates in San Francisco continued to defy the
federal government and quietly treat illness with cannabis, until now, the
specter of a federal raid hung over patients' heads, said Dr. Stephen Ellis.

Ellis prescribes cannabis at The City's Medical Marijuana Physician
Evaluation Medical Clinic. "This is potentially excellent news. Many
patients are stressed about the thought of a federal raid in the back of
their minds," he said.

Ellis hoped the ruling would mean better quality marijuana and an end to
exorbitant black market prices for weed.

Peter Keane, dean of law at Golden Gate University, said Tuesday's ruling
freed San Francisco to implement Proposition S, the 2002 voter-mandated
decision for The City to grow cannabis for the ill.

While the federal government can appeal the ruling, Keane said it was
firmly rooted in constitutional law and likely to prevail.

Tuesday's landmark ruling involved the case of two seriously ill California
women who sued Attorney General John Ashcroft. They asked for a court order
letting them smoke, grow or obtain marijuana without fear of federal
prosecution.

A U.S. District judge tossed the case in March, saying the Controlled
Substances Act barred him from blocking any potential enforcement action
against medical marijuana patients Angel Raich and Diane Monson. Tuesday's
ruling sends the case back to the district judge.

If the ruling is not successfully appealed, an injunction will be issued
protecting Raich and Monson from federal prosecution until a full trial.

"A powerful constitutional protection has been brought to bear on the issue
of medical marijuana," Keane said of the ruling. "There are rights to
privacy of a patient and a right to one's individual autonomy under the
14th amendment."

Associated Press contributed to this report.