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US CA: Clinton Asks Supreme Court To Overturn Marijuana Ruling
Bob Egelko, Of The Examiner Staff San Francisco Examiner (CA)
Saturday 29 Jul 2000 Subj: US CA: Clinton Asks Supreme Court To Overturn Marijuana Ruling Pubdate: Sat, 29 Jul 2000 Source: San Francisco Examiner (CA) Author: Bob Egelko, Of The Examiner Staff CLINTON ASKS SUPREME COURT TO OVERTURN MARIJUANA RULING Appellate Decision For Oakland Cannabis Club "Flouts' Congress The Clinton administration wants the Supreme Court to overturn an appellate ruling that would make medical marijuana available to seriously ill patients in Oakland, saying the ruling would flout the will of Congress and undermine federal drug laws. The ruling last September by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which opened the door for distribution of marijuana in cases of "medical necessity," was "directly at odds with Congress' express finding that marijuana has no currently accepted medical use," the Justice Department said in papers filed with the high court. Noting that no other federal court had allowed the use of marijuana for medical purposes apart from government-approved experiments, the department said the ruling "threatens the government's ability to enforce the federal drug laws in the nine states within the 9th Circuit," with a total population of nearly 50 million. The court is likely to decide this fall whether it will review the case or leave the appellate decision intact. The appeal was not surprising in light of the intense legal battle waged by the Clinton administration against Proposition 215 since California voters approved it in November 1996. The initiative allowed patients to use marijuana with their doctor's recommendation without risking prosecution under state drug laws. But the decision to appeal disappointed state Attorney General Bill Lockyer, who had written to U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno asking her to leave the appellate ruling intact. Lockyer spokesman Nathan Barankin said Friday the appellate decision established "a thoughtful policy in this state that was not clearly articulated in Proposition 215, and that is respectful of the needs of sick people and also of legitimate public safety concerns." Robert Raich, lawyer for the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative, had a more scornful reaction. With Texas Gov. George W. Bush accusing Vice President Al Gore of being soft on drugs, Raich said, "in response, the Clinton-Gore administration now feels it must deny medical cannabis patients access to the marijuana they require." The Oakland cooperative was among several Northern California marijuana dispensaries shut down in 1998 by U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in response to a Justice Department lawsuit. Breyer agreed with the department that federal drug laws overrode Proposition 215 and ruled out a defense of necessity, the doctrine that a law can be broken when it is the only way to prevent a more serious harm. But the appeals court ruled last September that federal law did not preclude a claim of necessity for patients who needed marijuana to prevent imminent serious harm and could show that legal alternatives were ineffective. The court also said the Justice Department had failed to rebut evidence offered by the cooperative and its members that marijuana was the only effective medication for many seriously ill patients. Uses of the drug include countering pain and nausea caused by therapies for AIDS and cancer and preventing serious weight loss in AIDS patients. Ordered by the court to reconsider the case, Breyer invited a Justice Department lawyer to offer new evidence, got no response, and then ruled July 17 that the Oakland cooperative could provide marijuana to any of its more than 2,000 patients who could show medical necessity. The Justice Department is also appealing that ruling. In Friday's Supreme Court appeal, the department said Congress, in passing laws against marijuana, had given federal law enforcement and health officials the responsibility to decide when such drugs could be distributed and used for medical purposes, under government-approved experiments. "It has not left that determination to individual courts or juries -- much less to private organizations like the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative," department lawyers wrote. They also said the appellate ruling would encourage distributors of other banned drugs, such as heroin and LSD, to assert a medical necessity defense.
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