cannabisnews.com: Court Upholds Medical Marijuana Defense!





Court Upholds Medical Marijuana Defense!
Posted by FoM on June 05, 1999 at 12:26:35 PT
By Lesley Clark
Source: Miami Herald
TALLAHASSEE People who smoke marijuana for health reasons got a dose of good news Thursday from Florida's highest court.
The Supreme Court's decision not to hear a case involving a 61-year-old man who smokes marijuana to keep his glaucoma at bay means sick people can continue to argue in court that their marijuana use is medically necessary.``This decision is important to thousands of seriously ill people in Florida,'' said Keith Stroup, executive director of NORML, a national group that supports legalizing marijuana. ``Seriously ill patients still have a defense in Florida.''The state had asked the Supreme Court to rule that Florida law prohibits defendants in marijuana cases from using ``medical necessity'' as a defense.The case before the court involved a Panhandle retiree who was convicted of cultivating and possessing marijuana in 1995. George Sowell tried to claim in court that he needed to smoke the plant to keep his glaucoma under control and to lessen the nausea caused by drugs that he took for a kidney transplant, but the trial judge refused to allow the defense. The First District Court of Appeal, however, overturned Sowell's conviction, ruling that Sowell could use the argument as a defense.Without a ruling from the Supreme Court, the appeals court decision will stand. It applies to the entire state, because no other appeals court has issued a conflicting decision.``He can go back to the trial court and try to prove it was a valid medical necessity,'' said James Rogers, bureau chief of criminal appeals for Attorney General Bob Butterworth's office.Sowell, who had a kidney transplant 17 years ago after the drugs that he was taking for glaucoma caused his kidneys to fail, said the marijuana cigarettes that he puffs before meals relieve nausea and allow him to eat.``I couldn't live without it,'' he said.Sowell, who stopped growing his own crops after his conviction but said he gets his ``chemical-free'' marijuana from someone else, welcomed the ruling.``This gives me some relief,'' he said Thursday in a telephone interview from his home in rural Chipley. ``Maybe I can relax some now.''Despite the ruling, the attorney general's office believes the Legislature will try to close the loophole and outlaw the use of the common-law defense.``We assume the Legislature will want to make it clear they don't want medical necessity as a defense,'' Rogers said. ``We were maintaining they already did, but the court did not agree.''Such a move by the Legislature would likely get a warm reception from Gov. Jeb Bush. The governor's drug czar said Thursday the jury is still out on whether medical marijuana is effective.``It's not proven yet it's safe or effective,'' said James McDonough, director of the Florida Office of Drug Control. ``Until we've had more medical research, I'm not prepared to view its use as medical at all.''In March, just three weeks before the high court heard oral arguments in the case, the national Institute of Medicine recommended that marijuana cigarettes be made available for short periods to help cancer and AIDS patients who can find no other relief for pain and nausea.The report from the institute, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, found that compounds in marijuana have the potential to ease some pain and suffering associated with certain diseases.Battles over medical marijuana have been fought across the nation since 1996, when California passed a ballot initiative that removed state penalties when people use marijuana for medicinal purposes. Since then, Arizona, Alaska, Oregon, Washington and Nevada have passed laws permitting the use of medicinal marijuana. A group in Florida has tried since 1997 to collect enough signatures on a petition to legalize medical marijuana.e-mail: lclark herald.com
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