COURT OKS USE OF MEDICAL POT

December 17, 2003 -- 2:07 a.m. Federal officials may not prosecute
marijuana smokers whose doctors say pot is their only medical relief
- -- at least so long as the users grow their own or obtain it from
growers without charge, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

The 2-1 decision from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San
Francisco would protect many medical marijuana users from prosecution
in states that have laws approving the use of marijuana for medical
purposes.

"This is huge. This essentially makes Prop. 215 federal law in
California," said Dale Gieringer, one of the co-authors of the
proposition, which legalized medical use of marijuana in California.
The measure, passed by California voters in 1996, was the first
medical-marijuana law in the United States.