U.S. APPEALS COURT APPROVES MEDICAL MARIJUANA IN SOME CASES

SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal appeals court ruled 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 ruling sends
the case back to the district judge.

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, ruling 2-1 in a rare
late-afternoon filing, 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 nonmedicinal purposes.

The decision was a blow to the Justice Department, which argued that
medical marijuana laws in nine states were trumped by the Controlled
Substances Act, which outlawed marijuana, heroin and a host of other
drugs nationwide. It also underscores the conflict between federal law
and California's 1996 medical marijuana law, which allows people to
grow, smoke or obtain marijuana for medical needs with a doctor's
recommendation.

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, 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. Now the case
goes back to the district judge.

"The intrastate, noncommercial cultivation, possession and use of
marijuana for personal medical purposes on the advice of a physician
is, in fact, different in kind from drug trafficking," Judge Harry
Pregerson wrote for the majority in yesterday's ruling.

Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and
Washington state have laws similar to California's.