Posted on 06/06/2005 8:58:28 AM PDT by Tumbleweed_Connection
Federal authorities may prosecute sick people whose doctors prescribe marijuana to ease pain, the Supreme Court ruled Monday, concluding that state laws don't protect users from a federal ban on the drug.
The decision is a stinging defeat for marijuana advocates who had successfully pushed 10 states to allow the drug's use to treat various illnesses.
Justice John Paul Stevens, writing the 6-3 decision, said that Congress could change the law to allow medical use of marijuana.
The closely watched case was an appeal by the Bush administration in a case involving two seriously ill California women who use marijuana. The court said the prosecution of pot users under the federal Controlled Substances Act was constitutional.
"I'm going to have to be prepared to be arrested," said Diane Monson, one of the women involved in the case.
In a dissent, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said that states should be allowed to set their own rules.
Under the Constitution, Congress may pass laws regulating a state's economic activity so long as it involves "interstate commerce" that crosses state borders. The California marijuana in question was homegrown, distributed to patients without charge and without crossing state lines.
"Our national medical system relies on proven scientific research, not popular opinion. To date, science and research have not determined that smoking marijuana is safe or effective," John Walters, director of National Drug Control Policy, said Monday.
Stevens said there are other legal options for patients, "but perhaps even more important than these legal avenues is the democratic process, in which the voices of voters allied with these (California women) may one day be heard in the halls of Congress."
California's medical marijuana law, passed by voters in 1996, allows people to grow, smoke or obtain marijuana for medical needs with a doctor's recommendation. Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington state have laws similar to California.
In those states, doctors generally can give written or oral recommendations on marijuana to patients with cancer, HIV and other serious illnesses.
"The states' core police powers have always included authority to define criminal law and to protect the health, safety, and welfare of their citizens," said O'Connor, who was joined in her dissent by two other states' rights advocates: Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justice Clarence Thomas.
The legal question presented a dilemma for the court's conservatives, who have pushed to broaden states' rights in recent years. They earlier invalidated federal laws dealing with gun possession near schools and violence against women on the grounds the activity was too local to justify federal intrusion.
O'Connor said she would have opposed California's medical marijuana law if she were a voter or a legislator. But she said the court was overreaching to endorse "making it a federal crime to grow small amounts of marijuana in one's own home for one's own medicinal use."
Alan Hopper, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney, said that local and state officers handle 99 percent of marijuana prosecutions and must still follow any state laws that protect patients. "This is probably not going to change a lot for individual medical marijuana patients," he said.
The case concerned two Californians, Monson and Angel Raich. The two had sued then-U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, asking for a court order letting them smoke, grow or obtain marijuana without fear of arrest, home raids or other intrusion by federal authorities.
Raich, an Oakland woman suffering from ailments including scoliosis, a brain tumor, chronic nausea, fatigue and pain, smokes marijuana every few hours. She said she was partly paralyzed until she started smoking pot. Monson, an accountant who lives near Oroville, Calif., has degenerative spine disease and grows her own marijuana plants in her backyard.
In the court's main decision, Stevens raised concerns about abuse of marijuana laws. "Our cases have taught us that there are some unscrupulous physicians who overprescribe when it is sufficiently profitable to do so," he said.
The case is Gonzales v. Raich, 03-1454.
Oivey...the adolescent questions begin.
Look rocketscience, I can always tell someone how to live...only now where this issue is concerned, the weight of federal prosecution rests on disobeying it.
Hater.
LOL...now, I'm out!!
Yes - he's one of the biggest drug-warrior bootlickers on the board.
You're a classless idiot troll, and not even a funny troll at that.
So now you're saying you're not man enough to do it yourself; you've got someone else's thugs to do your dirty work for you?
It would appear that the Supreme court has wasted its time and breath. Anyone in American can get as much pot as they want now: Tax free. Marijuana is the largest cash crop in California.
It will spend a great deal of time trying to tell cancer patients they can die in pain.
The Supreme court has proudly stepped in a pile of poop.
"It would appear that the Supreme Court has ruled and your contrarian/loserdopian point[s] are moot."
Would you agree if a pro-choice murder supporter said, "It woudl appear that the Supreme Court has ruled and your pro-live point[s] are moot."
Would you continue to fight for what is right, even in the face of a SC decision?
"So now you're saying you're not man enough to do it yourself..."
Do what myself? Prosecute an individual for violating Federal law?
Well, it is not a matter of being man enough. You see in order to prosecute an individual under Federal law you first need to have standing with the Justice Department as a prosecuting attorney.
The only authority I have in this matter would be an ability to make a complaint of some sort.
Because you see, my simple little friend...in the grown up world... there is an order to how things work.
LOL!!! Another one.
Cool tweedle-dee...you got it all figured out...now, go walk down the street and light up a blunt...when the evil [5th column] jackbooted [5th column] thug minions [5th column] of the evil [5th column] government hand-cuff ya...throw that quote at'em...let us all know how that works out for ya. ;o) Hahaha...
"Mommy, Mommy, Johnny won't stop smoking marijuna ... make him stop .... waaaahhhh!"
LOL!! Aww...why so bitter?! Hahaha...
I'm not bitter - apparently you're unable to recognize yourself.
I've seen people proudly reveal that they smoke pot because their doctors prescribed it for "anxiety".
"LOL!!! Another one."
Another what? What is so funny about unconstitutional SC decisions regarding the murder of unborn children?
What the heck is a "blunt"?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.