FEDERAL APPEALS COURT APPROVES MEDICAL MARIJUANA IN SOME CASES

Decision A Blow To Justice Department

SAN FRANCISCO (AP)- A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that a
congressional act 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 ruled 2-1 that 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 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.

The court added that "this limited use is clearly distinct from the broader
illicit drug market, as well as any broader commercial market for medical
marijuana, insofar as the medical marijuana at issue in this case is not
intended for, nor does it enter, the stream of commerce."

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.

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

Randy Barnett, a Boston University constitutional law professor, said the
case was precedent setting.

"It's the first time there's been a ruling that the application of the
Controlled Substances Act to the application of cultivation of medical
cannabis is unconstitutional," he said.

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.

The case 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. Tuesday's
ruling sends the case back to U.S. District Judge Martin Jenkins, who was
ordered to sign a preliminary injunction blocking federal drug action
directed toward Raich and Monson.

While the women's case has yet to be tried, the 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 partially paralyzed on the
right side of her body until she started smoking marijuana.

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."

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