WHITE HOUSE ESCALATES WAR ON MEDICAL POT

The Bush administration, pressing its campaign against state medical
marijuana laws, has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to let federal authorities
punish California doctors who recommend pot to their patients.

The administration would revoke the federal prescription licenses of doctors
who tell their patients marijuana would help them, a prerequisite for
obtaining the drug under the state's voter-approved medical marijuana law.

Justice Department lawyers this week asked the high court to take up the
issue in its next term, which begins in October. The department is appealing
a ruling by an appellate court in San Francisco that said the proposed
penalties would violate the freedom of speech of both doctors and patients.

If the justices agree to review the case, it would be their first look at
medical marijuana since May 2001, when they upheld the federal government's
authority to close down a pot dispensary in Oakland and others in the state.

Last October's court decision "effectively licensed physicians to treat
patients with prohibited substances" and interfered with the government's
authority "to enforce the law," Justice Department lawyers Mark Stern and
Colette Matzzie wrote in court papers.

The appeal "is a sign that this administration will do everything they can
to defeat the will of the voters of California and many other states," said
Graham Boyd, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer for doctors, patients
and AIDS support groups. Those groups sued the federal government in 1997
over the policy, which the Clinton administration originally introduced but
later decided not to pursue.

The federal action was in response to California voters' 1996 approval of
Proposition 215. The initiative, a trailblazer for laws in eight other
states, allows seriously ill patients to use marijuana with their doctors'
approval. Prop. 215 specified that the approval would take the form of a
recommendation rather than a formal prescription.

The federal government, which classifies marijuana in the same prohibited
category as heroin -- drugs with a high potential for abuse and no medical
value -- has fought Prop. 215 since its passage. The reaction began under
President Bill Clinton and has escalated under President Bush, whose drug
enforcers have raided local pot clubs and filed criminal charges against
their suppliers.

The Bush administration also revived the effort to target doctors' federal
licenses, which started under the Clinton administration. When a federal
judge issued a permanent injunction against the policy in 2000, the Clinton
Justice Department did not appeal, but the new administration took up the
case after taking office in 2001.

Under the administration's policy, doctors who recommended marijuana would
lose their licenses to prescribe federally regulated narcotics. Doctors in
many fields need federal licenses to remain in practice.

The government's attempt to enforce the policy was rejected by the appellate
court in October.

News of the administration's appeal to the high court dismayed two patients
who are plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

"I wish the government would stop this war against patients and doctors,"
said Keith Vines, 53, a San Francisco assistant district attorney who lost
50 pounds and nearly died from a wasting syndrome associated with AIDS. He
credits medical marijuana with restoring his appetite and saving his life.

"Medical marijuana is keeping me with the ability to continue treatment,"
said Judith Cushner, 58, director of Laurel Hill Nursery School in San
Francisco, who is undergoing chemotherapy after suffering a relapse of
breast cancer. The government's bid for Supreme Court intervention, she
said, is "absolutely frightening."