Cannabis News Stop the Drug War!
  Medical Marijuana in Court
Posted by CN Staff on May 25, 2002 at 07:15:56 PT
Editorial 
Source: New York Times 

medical Whether marijuana can be used for medicinal purposes in California and several other Western states is about to be decided by a federal appeals court in San Francisco. The court is to rule on a challenge by doctors to a federal policy prohibiting them from recommending medical marijuana.

The federal campaign, which is designed to block a California state referendum on the issue, is mean-spirited and unconstitutional. The appeals court should not delay in calling an end to it.

In 1996 California's voters adopted Proposition 215, also known as the Medical Marijuana Initiative, which holds that the state's criminal laws against marijuana do not apply to seriously ill patients who use the drug on the advice of their physicians.

Shortly after it passed, the federal government announced that, as part of the war on drugs, it would use its authority under the Controlled Substances Act to revoke a doctor's license to prescribe drugs if he or she recommended marijuana to a patient.

A group of doctors and patients sued, arguing that the federal policy intrudes on the doctor-patient relationship and prevents them from honestly rendering and receiving medical advice. The lower court that heard the case took a dim view of the federal government's policy, and enjoined it from using its rules to take away the licensing power of doctors who recommend medical marijuana to their patients.

Medical marijuana can be a legitimate treatment for cancer patients who are nauseated by chemotherapy, AIDS patients who lose their appetites and other seriously ill people. In cases where a patient is considering stopping treatment because of the agony, or cannot keep food down, medical marijuana can be life-saving. The federal government's attempt to block its use flies in the face of mainstream medical opinion. One Harvard study of 2,000 oncologists found that 44 percent had recommended marijuana to patients undergoing chemotherapy.

The federal policy also clashes with the free-speech protections of the First Amendment. The federal government wants to punish physicians merely for advising a patient about the benefits of marijuana. That restriction infringes directly on the First Amendment right of doctors to speak freely and, no less important, the right of patients to receive the best possible medical information.

The court's ruling will affect not only California but six other Western states in the same judicial circuit that have medical marijuana laws. It is being closely watched by doctors and patients in those states, and nationwide, since this ruling is likely to be influential on other courts that take up the question. The California appeals court judges have an opportunity to strike an important blow for free speech and honesty in medicine by striking down the medical marijuana gag rule.

Source: New York Times (NY)
Published: May 25, 2002
Copyright: 2002 The New York Times Company
Contact: letters@nytimes.com
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/

Related Articles & Web Sites:

Chronic Cannabis Use in PDF Format
http://freedomtoexhale.com/ccu.pdf

Medical Marijuana Information Links
http://freedomtoexhale.com/medical.htm

Medical Marijuana Wars Heat Up
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12932.shtml

Court To Decide What You Can Say About Marijuana
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12894.shtml

Recommending Pot Sounds OK To 9th Circuit
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12474.shtml


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Comment #1 posted by el_toonces on May 25, 2002 at 15:01:09 PT:

Sickening....
..anybody who is aware of the government's appeal -- a clear attempt to limit the practice of medicine and the free speech of those who practice it or benefit from it -- should be sickened to the point of writing their representative. Imagine what would happen if the government decided doctors could no longer counsel their patients on such issues as birth control, diet, or drug prices!

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