HIGH COURT PROTECTS DOCTORS WHO PRESCRIBE MARIJUANA

Justices Let Stand Lower Court Ruling

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court, in a rebuff on Tuesday to federal policy
on medical marijuana, let stand an appeals court ruling that doctors may
not be investigated, threatened or punished by federal regulators for
recommending marijuana as a medical treatment for their patients.

As a result, doctors in California and six other Western states where
voters or legislators have approved marijuana for medical uses such as pain
relief may discuss it freely with their patients without fear of
jeopardizing their federal licenses to prescribe drugs. Advocates of
medical marijuana greeted the court's action as a significant and
surprising victory.

In 1996, immediately after California voters approved a medical marijuana
initiative known as the Compassionate Use Act, the Clinton administration
warned doctors that recommending marijuana "will lead to administrative
action by the Drug Enforcement Administration to revoke the practitioner's
registration."

The Bush administration carried the policy forward and appealed the ruling
by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last October that the federal
policy violated the free speech rights of doctors and the "principles of
federalism."

While states have authority to issue licenses to practice medicine, the DEA
issues the licenses to prescribe drugs that doctors need.

The Supreme Court's action, which it took without comment, was unexpected,
given that the court is nearly always willing to at least give a hearing to
a government policy a lower court has invalidated.

Under California's law, a patient whose doctor has approved or recommended
marijuana will not be prosecuted by state law-enforcement authorities. Of
the nine states within the 9th Circuit, seven--Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii,
Nevada, Oregon and Washington, in addition to California--authorize the
medical use of marijuana. Other states that do are Maine, Colorado and
Maryland.

In the California case, 10 doctors, six patients and two organizations
brought a class-action lawsuit in 1997 to challenge the Clinton
administration policy. One of the plaintiffs' lawyers, Daniel Abrahamson of
the Drug Policy Alliance, an advocacy group, said Tuesday that about 20,000
Californians were using marijuana for medical purposes.