COURT OKS MEDICAL MARIJUANA IN SOME CASES

SAN FRANCISCO -- An appeals court ruled Tuesday that a federal law
outlawing marijuana does not apply to sick people who are allowed to
smoke pot with a doctor's recommendation. The ruling by the 9th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals was a blow to the federal government in its
fight against medical marijuana. The Justice Department has argued
that state medical marijuana laws were trumped by federal drug laws.

The case 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. Eight other states have similar laws.

The Justice Department was not immediately available to comment on the
ruling from an appeals court some call the nation's most liberal.

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

Judge Harry Pregerson wrote for the 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."

The case concerned 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 federal judge tossed the case in March, saying the federal law
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, and while
the women's case has yet to be tried, the appeals court said the two
"have demonstrated a strong likelihood of success on the merits."

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.

She and her doctor say marijuana is the only drug that helps her pain
and keeps her eating to stay alive.

"I feel safe for the very first time ever since I've been a patient,"
Raich said of the ruling. "This is very triumphant not only for myself
but for patients and caregivers across the country."

In dissent, Judge C. Arlen Beam said that Congress could regulate
medical marijuana, noting that the Supreme Court has declared that
grain is subject to federal regulation even if the grower never sold
it and used it solely for his family.

Tuesday's case in an outgrowth of a 2001 decision by the Supreme
Court, which ruled that medical marijuana clubs could not dole out pot
on the grounds of "medical necessity," even if patients have a
doctor's recommendation to use the drug.

Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and
Washington state have laws similar to California, which has been the
focus of federal drug interdiction efforts. Agents have raided and
shut down several medical marijuana growing clubs.

The appeals court, the nation's largest, has jurisdiction over all the
states except Colorado and Maine.