CALIF. COURT: NO PROSECUTION FOR MEDICAL POT USERS

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In a unanimous decision, the California Supreme
Court reasserted the voter-approved law granting ill patients the right to
use marijuana for medical purposes without fear of prosecution.

"The court made it clear that medical marijuana patients with a physician's
authorization are no different than patients who have a prescription for
prescription drugs--they are to be treated the same," Gerald Uelmen, the
attorney who argued the case before the court, told Reuters Health. Uelmen
is a professor at Santa Clara University School of Law.

California voters passed Proposition 215, or the Medical Use of Marijuana
initiative, in 1996. The law gave patients the right to possess marijuana
if it was prescribed by a doctor for ailments such as glaucoma, AIDS and
cancer. Eight other states--Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Maine, Nevada,
Oregon, Hawaii and Washington--have since passed similar laws.

However, a 2001 US Supreme Court ruling found that federal drug laws do not
recognize these state initiatives and that medical marijuana users and
third-party distributors are still technically subject to federal prosecution.

The California law was challenged by Myron Mower, a Tuolumne County
diabetic who was arrested in 1997 for growing 31 marijuana plants in his home.

On Thursday, Chief Justice Ronald George overturned an appeal court's
earlier decision. In the court's ruling, he wrote that patients who produce
a prescription for marijuana should not have to proceed to trial, but
should have their cases dismissed at an earlier point in time.

The initiative "reasonably must be interpreted to grant a defendant a
limited immunity from prosecution," the justice wrote.

In addition, the justices found that defendants who do go to trial should
be judged by whether there was merely a reasonable doubt, rather than a
preponderance of the evidence, that they were guilty.

"For many patients who still live in fear, it should put their minds at
ease that the law is the law," Paul Armentano, a senior policy analyst for
the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, a Washington,
DC-based advocacy group, told Reuters Health. "For qualified patients, the
possession as a medicine should be treated as we treat other prescription
medications people use every day."

California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, whose office prosecuted the case,
said in a written statement he approved of the clarity of the court's decision.

"The court's decision strikes an appropriate balance in helping to ensure
that truly needy patients whose doctors have recommended medical marijuana
to alleviate pain and suffering related to serious illnesses will have
access to this medicine under California law," he said.

In 1999, the Institute of Medicine reviewed the medical literature on
marijuana's health effects. "Scientific data indicate the potential
therapeutic value of cannabinoid drugs," the report concluded.
"Cannabinoids would be moderately well suited for particular conditions,
such as chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, and AIDS wasting."

The American Medical Association and the American Cancer Society have
previously called for clinical trials investigating marijuana's reputed
health benefits, such as relief from pain and nausea, and appetite stimulation.