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 News from Around the Americas | June 2005 
Plaintiffs in Medical Marijuana Case Defying U.S. Supreme Court Ruling
 David Kravets - Associated Press
San Francisco - The two women who sued the Bush administration in hopes of keeping their medical marijuana supplies said they'll defy the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling and continue to smoke pot.
"I'm going to have to be prepared to be arrested," said Diane Monson, an accountant who smokes marijuana several times a day to relieve her pain from degenerative spine disease.
The Supreme Court ruled Monday that federal authorities may prosecute people using doctor-recommended pot, concluding that medical marijuana laws in California and nine other states don't make such users immune from federal laws against marijuana possession.
Monson, 48, was recommended marijuana by her doctor in 1997 after standard prescription drugs didn't work or made her sleepy. She grows it in the yard of her home near Oroville, Calif., about 70 miles north of Sacramento. "I'm way disappointed. There are so many people that need cannabis," she said.
Fifty-six percent of California voters approved the nation's first so-called medical marijuana law in 1996, allowing patients to smoke and grow marijuana with a doctor's recommendation. Other states followed, including Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington state.
In 2001, the Supreme Court ruled against medical marijuana clubs that argued for a legal exception when patients can demonstrate a "medical necessity" for the drug. That forced the Oakland supplier of the other plaintiff, Angel Raich, to close.
Raich and Monson sued Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' predecessor, John Ashcroft, because they feared their supplies of medical marijuana might dry up. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in San Francisco, ordered the Bush administration to refrain from prosecuting the pair, including Raich's suppliers. Monday's Supreme Court decision reverses that order.
All of which leaves them with few options other than to take their chances and continue smoking and ingesting marijuana, the women said.
"If I stop using cannabis, unfortunately, I would die," said Raich, who inhaled marijuana after Monday's ruling in her house in Oakland, using a machine that fills a plastic bag with pot vapors. She estimates her marijuana intake to be about 9 pounds a year.
Raich, 39, suffers from scoliosis, a brain tumor, chronic nausea and other problems. She said she uses marijuana every few waking hours, on the advice of her doctor, who said dozens of other medications were of little help.
"This is the only way that I have to combat my suffering and to deal with my illness," said the mother of two, ages 16 and 19.
And if federal authorities do try to arrest her, she said she may seek refuge outside the United States. "If I need to leave the country, I will if that time comes," Raich said.
Calif. AG: Don't Panic over Pot Ruling
The Associated Press
San Francisco - Oregon stopped issuing medical marijuana cards after Monday's Supreme Court ruling, but people could apparently still get pot with a doctor's prescription there and in nine other states. And nobody in law enforcement appeared eager to make headlines arresting ailing patients.
"People shouldn't panic. There aren't going to be many changes," California Attorney General Bill Lockyer said. "Nothing is different today than it was two days ago, in terms of real-world impact."
The high court ruled 6-3 that people who smoke marijuana because their doctors recommend it to ease pain can be prosecuted for violating federal drug laws.
The ruling does not strike down medical marijuana laws in California, Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont or Washington state. State and local authorities in most of those states said they have no interest in arresting people who smoke pot for medical reasons.
It remains to be seen whether the federal Drug Enforcement Administration is planning a crackdown. The Justice Department was not commenting.
In Oregon, where more than 10,000 residents hold medical marijuana cards, state officials said they would temporarily stop issuing cards to sick people and issued a reminder to cardholders that federal prosecution has always been a possibility.
"Today's decision clarifies the federal government's authority," said Kevin Neely, a spokesman for the state attorney general.
It was not clear how the decision would affect the more than 1,700 Oregon doctors who have signed patient applications for medicinal marijuana.
Oregon state Sen. Alan Bates, also a doctor, said he will temporarily stop writing authorizations for patients to get marijuana cards.
"I won't approve any more until I know what's going on," the Democrat said. "I don't want to do anything to get patients arrested or in trouble."
Medical marijuana dispensaries have proliferated despite a 2001 Supreme Court ruling that rejected the "medical necessity" defense in marijuana cases.
Paul Armentano of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws said arrests of ailing patients have been rare, but the government has arrested more than 60 people in medical marijuana raids since September 2001.
Most of those arrests have been in California -- the first state to allow medical marijuana, in 1996. On Monday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has previously supported use of pot by sick people, said only: "It is now up to Congress to provide clarity."
Still, the ruling makes Valerie Corral nervous. Corral operates a 150-plant pot farm in Santa Cruz County, providing marijuana for free to about 165 seriously ill members. Her farm was raided by the DEA in 2002. The high court's decision "leaves us protecting ourselves from a government that should be protecting us," she said.
It was "business as usual" at the San Francisco health department, spokeswoman Eileen Shields said. The county issues medical marijuana identification cards, valid for two years, to residents with a doctor's prescription. Currently, 8,200 residents have the cards.
In Colorado, where 668 people hold certificates that let them use and grow marijuana for pain relief under a constitutional amendment voters approved in 2000, federal prosecutors will continue to focus on large drug rings, but if investigators come across marijuana in the possession of certified state users, they will seize it -- just as they have always done, said Jeff Dorschner, a U.S. Attorney's spokesman.
In Montana, the 119 residents who paid $200 to get on the state's confidential registry won't face state prosecution, said state Attorney General Mike McGrath. He said the state is not obligated to help federal authorities prosecute people following state law.
In Nevada, medicinal pot users are already warned that the state law offers no protections from federal prosecution, Attorney General Brian Sandoval said. |
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