MEDICAL MARIJUANA BACKERS: RAID ILLEGAL

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - A Drug Enforcement Administration raid on a farm
that cultivated pot for ailing patients was both illegal and immoral,
medical marijuana supporters argued at the start of a federal trial Monday.

The trial comes three months after the city and county of Santa Cruz sued
the federal government over the raid, demanding that agents stay away from
a farm that grows marijuana on a quiet coastal road about 15 miles north of
the city. In September, agents uprooted about 165 plants and arrested the
owners of the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana.

The lawsuit claims that seven patients have had their marijuana intake
substantially decreased since the raid, and that the farm has been unable
to provide members with necessary medicine to relieve nausea, pain and
other chronic conditions.

This has caused an "insurmountable" level of pain and suffering and
hastened the deaths of the most vulnerable patients, lawyers said.

"We are not asserting the right to market marijuana, but to cultivate and
use it to prolong life and give comfort to the dying," said Santa Clara
University law professor Gerald Uelmen, who represents about 200
chronically and terminally ill people. "We are asserting the fundamental
rights of patients ... so they can meet their death without agony and
suffering."

The case pits state rules on medical marijuana against federal laws
declaring it an illegal drug, and it marks the first time a public entity
has sued the federal government on behalf of patients who need medical
marijuana.

Marijuana is illegal under federal law. State law in California and seven
other states allows marijuana to be grown and distributed to people with a
doctor's recommendation.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in May 2002 that people charged with violating
federal drug laws cannot use medical necessity as their defense. But Uelmen
said the justices left open whether states could legalize medical marijuana
under the 10th Amendment, which grants states powers not exercised by the
federal government, or under the 14th Amendment's right to due process.

The case also hinges in part on whether the U.S. Constitution's commerce
clause applies to the California farm. The clause gives Congress power to
regulate trade between states.

Justice Department lawyer Mark Quinlivan said that any type of drug trade
was an interstate issue, emphasizing that only the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration can conduct experiments using illegal drugs.

"There isn't anyone here who doesn't have a friend or relative in ... dire
straits," Quinlivan told a courtroom packed with people in wheelchairs or
suffering from epilepsy, post-polio syndrome and terminal cancer. But, he
said, "the FDA drug approval process has served this country well over the
years."

U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel promised to review hundreds of pages of
evidence, and is expected to issue a ruling later this summer.