cannabisnews.com: Pot For Pain Pot For Pain Posted by FoM on July 21, 2000 at 19:17:51 PT Examiner Editorial Writer Source: San Francisco Examiner It stands to reason that if the government can't illustrate why a law is necessary, then that law should not exist. On Monday, a federal judge seemed to agree with that proposition as he ruled that an Oakland club can dispense marijuana to seriously ill clients who can't relieve their pain in other ways. The decision by U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer is not only compassionate, it strikes to the heart of the federal government's prohibition against marijuana use. Breyer said government attorneys had failed to offer "any evidence to rebut defendants' evidence that cannabis is medically necessary for a group of seriously ill individuals." Local cannabis clubs and federal law enforcement agents have been at war since 1996 when California voters passed Proposition 215. That measure sought to legalize the use of medicinal marijuana by people afflicted with chronic pain from terminal diseases such as AIDS and cancer. The feds closed a half dozen cannabis clubs and sued the Oakland outlet when it refused to shut its doors. In 1998, Breyer ordered the club closed. But last fall, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit sent the case back to Breyer, saying he had acted "without weighing or considering the public interest." This time he did. Now the federal government - instead of continuing to fight reason - should end its total prohibition of marijuana use. Pot eases the pain very sick people suffer. For many of them, there is no better pain relief. For some of them, there is no other way to relieve the pain. A rational policy would recognize these facts, in the public interest, and make cannabis legally available to those sick people for whom there is not a better remedy. Breyer was handicapped in his first hearing of this case because he felt he was strictly bound by the letter of the law. (Congress can quickly rectify that.) Many district attorneys, sheriffs and police officials still feel that way. As a result, they're determined to keep the lid on medicinal marijuana use. That's too bad. They should follow the lead of San Francisco and some other counties in developing a system to allow legitimate use, including ID cards and monitoring of patients by doctors. Denying needed medication isn't in the public interest, and it really isn't in law enforcement's interest either. E-mail: letters examiner.com Published: July 21, 2000©2000 San Francisco Examiner Page A18 Related Articles & Web Site:Oakland Cannabis Buyer's Cooperativehttp://www.rxcbc.org/Medical Marijuanahttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6471.shtmlJudge OKs Oakland Marijuana Club http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6443.shtmlStudy Finds Pot Safe for AIDS Patientshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6390.shtmlCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archives:http://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Post Comment Name: Optional Password: E-Mail: Subject: Comment: [Please refrain from using profanity in your message] Link URL: Link Title: