MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAW IS WELL WORTH COURT'S PROTECTION

THE ISSUE: The U.S. Supreme Court Has Refused To Review An Appeals Court
Decision Allowing Doctors To Recommend Marijuana To Sick Patients.

PROPONENTS of marijuana for medical purposes have won an important round in
the U.S. Supreme Court, but conflicts remain between federal law and
statutes in Hawaii and eight other states that have legalized its medical
use. Doctors recommending marijuana and patients using it to ease their pain
must abide by strange, unwritten rules. Those precautions are necessary for
patients to benefit from a worthwhile program and avoid federal prosecution.

Patients using marijuana to relieve pain from AIDS, cancer, multiple
sclerosis, glaucoma and other illnesses can breathe a sigh of relief because
of the Supreme Court's refusal to review an appeals court decision. However,
they should not expect the Bush administration to accept the decision
without a fight.

Attorney General John Ashcroft proposed five months ago that Congress strip
federal drug-enforcement money from police in states with medical-marijuana
laws. Not only would that make a mockery of the Bush administration's avowed
support of states' rights, it could dangerously cut off federal assistance
to Hawaii in its battle against crystal methamphetamine.

The high court rejected without comment the Justice Department's appeal of a
ruling that doctors cannot be punished for recommending or talking about the
benefits of marijuana to their patients. The rejection lets stand a ruling
by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, whose jurisdiction includes seven
of the nine states that have legalized medical marijuana.

The ruling does not mean doctors may prescribe marijuana. The 9th Circuit
panel of judges said a doctor doing so "would be guilty of aiding and
abetting in violation of federal law." Nor does is it mean marijuana may be
distributed to patients. The Supreme Court ruled unanimously two years ago
that the congressional determination that "marijuana has no medical benefits
worthy of an exception" to controlled-substance laws makes its distribution
illegal.

Instead, patients must obtain marijuana surreptitiously, i.e. illegally, or
grow it themselves. Tom Mountain runs the Honolulu Medical Marijuana
Patients Co-op, which helps patients grow their own. More than 1,000
patients are registered with the state to use and grow marijuana.

The Hawaii law allows a patient using it medically to possess seven
marijuana plants, three of which are mature, and an ounce of processed
marijuana. In California, Gov. Gray Davis signed into law on Monday a
measure that limits a patient or caregiver to a half-pound of dried
marijuana and six mature or 12 immature plants. Those limits infuriated
California patients, whose marijuana crops had been unlimited.

Even with Hawaii's relatively low limits, Mountain and others told the
Star-Bulletin's Helen Altonn that Hawaii's law is a godsend to patients.
Mountain, who uses marijuana to ease pain and muscle spasms from a spinal
cord injury, recommends only that the registration program be shifted from
the public safety director to the state Department of Health, a move that
seems logical.