HEARING SET FOR ASHCROFT ORE. ORDER

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - When Oregon voters endorsed the nation's only
assisted-suicide law for the second time, the U.S. Justice Department
said it didn't interfere with federal regulations.

Three years later, a new attorney general disagrees, prompting a
showdown between Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers and U.S.
Attorney General John Ashcroft that was set to return to the
courtroom Tuesday.

Ashcroft has argued Oregon's physician-assisted suicide law, which
permits doctors to prescribe lethal doses of medicine to terminally
ill patients, interferes with federal law on prescription drugs.

He issued a directive this month stating that Oregon doctors who use
the assisted-suicide law would lose their licenses to prescribe
federally controlled drugs.

The day before the directive was published, the state of Oregon sued
Ashcroft, seeking to block it from taking effect. U.S. District Judge
Robert Jones granted a temporary restraining order until Tuesday,
when he has scheduled another hearing.

Oregon voters first approved the assisted-suicide law in 1994 by a
narrow margin, then reapproved it by an overwhelming margin in 1997
after the law withstood several legal challenges.

Gov. John Kitzhaber officially signed it in 1999, allowing at least
70 people - most of them cancer patients - to ask for a prescription
for a lethal overdose.

The law expressly states the patient must administer the fatal dosage
himself or herself, and only after an evaluation by two doctors who
agree beyond all doubt the patient has less than six months to live.

The U.S. Supreme Court since has unanimously ruled there is no
constitutional right to assisted suicide, but it is up to the states
to decide for themselves whether to allow it.

Ashcroft said a unanimous Supreme Court ruling in May on medical
marijuana forced him to reconsider whether the Oregon
assisted-suicide law conflicts with the federal Controlled Substances
Act.

He overturned a previous interpretation by former Attorney General
Janet Reno, who decided in 1998 that the law does not interfere with
federal regulations.

An Oregon doctor and a pharmacist, and several terminally ill
patients have joined the Oregon lawsuit against Ashcroft. Their
lawyers were scheduled to address the court.

Jones has indicated he may rule from the bench, but he also may take
the issue under consideration and rule later. Attorneys and observers
say they expect a swift appeal.