U.S. SHOULD LET DOCTORS ADVISE THE USE OF MARIJUANA

The Supreme Court's silence has freed some doctors to talk to patients
about marijuana, a step in the right direction in the nonsensical war
between federal drug warriors and states that have legalized the medicinal
use of pot.

Without comment, the high court last week refused to hear the
administration's appeal of a lower-court ruling barring federal officials
from punishing doctors who recommend marijuana for their patients. It was
the correct thing to do: Denying doctors the authority to write
prescriptions for controlled substances if they dare to recommend
marijuana, as Washington was prepared to do, violates the free speech
rights both of doctors and their patients.

Sick people need to be free to discuss any and all treatment options with
doctors, without looking over their shoulders for the cops.

They now can in the seven states within the jurisdiction of the U.S. Ninth
Circuit Court of Appeals that have medical marijuana laws - California,
Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.

But most patients still have no legal way to obtain marijuana. It is a
federal felony to cultivate, possess or distribute marijuana. And because
the court let the Ninth Circuit ruling stand, rather than deciding this
issue itself, it is binding only in that one circuit. Federal officials
remain free to intimidate doctors in other states with medical marijuana
laws, currently Colorado, Maine and Maryland.

The present state of affairs also perpetuates an awkward situation for
federal law enforcement officials who, in going after doctors and patients,
insist they are merely enforcing federal law, which supersedes state
statutes. Rather than asking them to turn a blind eye to illegality,
Congress should change the law to require that state medical-marijuana laws
be respected.

Washington should not thwart the will of the people where they've approved
the use of marijuana to relieve the nausea and wasting of chronic illness.
The war on drugs should not target the sick and dying.