cannabisnews.com: Up In Smoke 





Up In Smoke 
Posted by FoM on May 15, 2001 at 08:35:06 PT
Editorial
Source: San Francisco Chronicle 
The saddest consequence of yesterday's U.S. Supreme Court ruling that outlaws distributing marijuana as a "medical necessity" is that many sick people will suffer unnecessarily because they don't have an illegal drug connection. Recreational potheads will have no problem scoring lids, but law-abiding patients will have to grow it themselves or purchase it from a criminal source. For many patients that will mean doing without an effective palliative they say works to ease the agonies of a host of illnesses. 
The high court's 8-to-0 decision supported the federal Controlled Substances Act that states marijuana has "no currently accepted medical use" and banned its distribution by so-called "cannabis clubs." It was a major setback for the medical marijuana movement, and more specifically, for the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative, which had argued pot is a "medical necessity" for many patients. Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for the court, said "medical necessity is not a defense to manufacturing and distributing marijuana," and that pot has "no currently accepted medical use at all." It is a shortsighted ruling that ignores significant anecdotal evidence of its effectiveness. California was the first state in the union to legalize pot as medicine with the passage of Proposition 215 in 1996 that permitted patients to use, grow and possess pot if it was recommended by a doctor. Eight other states have passed similar laws, and they have all been at loggerheads with federal law that lists marijuana with cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines and other dangerous drugs. Medical pot advocates insisted that the high court's ruling does not affect the validity of state laws that allow patients to grow and use small amounts of marijuana as medicine. However, state Attorney General Bill Lockyer says "federal law trumps state enactments," but he is reviewing the decision. "It is unfortunate that the court was unable to respect California's historic role as a 'laboratory' for good public policy and a leader in the effort to help sick and dying residents who have no hope for relief other than through medical marijuana," he said. For years, advocates of marijuana as medicine have argued that pot works for an array of medical conditions, including cancer, AIDS, migraine headaches, epilepsy, asthma and chronic pain. It would take an act of Congress to restore the medical marijuana option. Congress should do so as a matter of humanity and medical necessity in many cases. Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)Published: Tuesday, May 15, 2001 Copyright: 2001 San Francisco Chronicle Page A - 18 Contact: letters sfchronicle.comWebsite: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/Related Articles & Web Site:Oakland Cannabis Buyer's Cooperativehttp://www.rxcbc.org/Medicinal Pot Ruled Illegal http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9726.shtmlBig Bench Backs Might Over Right http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9725.shtml
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