Word: marijuana
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...Surprising Advocate of Medical Marijuana Drug czar designate John P. Walters is likely to surprise his critics on the left if, as is likely, he is asked about medical marijuana during his confirmation hearings. Although staunchly conservative on drug and crime issues, Walters is expected to testify that he thinks the government should consider loosening federal rules so that doctors can prescribe or recommend marijuana for certain seriously ill patients...
...court's foray into the medipot conflict did little to resolve the highly politicized issue. Justice Clarence Thomas' opinion was narrow. It affirmed the government's power to shut down a cannabis cooperative in Oakland, Calif., but stopped short of invalidating laws passed by nine states allowing marijuana for medical use. Thomas' opinion skirted the states'-rights issue at the heart of the case--does California have the right to legalize medipot?--and a concurring opinion from three liberal Justices, led by John Paul Stevens, chided the conservative majority for "overbroad language...given the importance of showing respect for sovereign...
That's a good description of the 880 members of the Los Angeles cooperative, three-quarters of whom have AIDS. The rest suffer from cancer, multiple sclerosis or other diseases, and all have marijuana prescriptions fromm licensed physicians. Leanne Orgen, 46, an insurance broker with liver cancer, buys pot-laced chocolate-chunk brownies--a "miracle drug" for chemotherapy-induced nausea, she says. Jeffrey Farrington, 32, who has glaucoma, explains that if he stops smoking marijuana, which relieves ocular pressure, he loses more than 7 ft. of vision daily. "If they shut us down," he says, "I'll go blind...
...years ago, the Institute of Medicine concluded that marijuana has potential therapeutic value. Polls show nearly three-quarters of Americans favor medical-marijuana use, and juries are increasingly reluctant to convict sick people for possession. Oregon, Alaska and Hawaii have set up state registries for medipot users; Colorado, California, Nevada and Maine are debating similar moves. Such grassroots enthusiasm carries little weight with drug warriors, who dispute the scientific data and argue that marijuana leads to hard narcotics. In an interview with TIME last week, Attorney General John Ashcroft praised the Supreme Court decision. "We can't function well...
That's unlikely. But neither the Justice Department nor the DEA has said whether the court ruling will cause them to mount a new offensive against medical-marijuana clinics. And as a practical matter, most individual pot infractions fall under state and local jurisdiction, and an increasing number of local law-enforcement officers are refusing to prosecute medipot cases...