Tuesday, June 7, 2005
Feds should lay off pot patients
By: North County Times Editorial Staff -
Our view: Supreme Court ruling should prompt Congress to change drug laws
The Bush administration got the ruling it wanted Monday to properly punish people it considers dangerous lawbreakers: ailing patients who use state-approved marijuana to relieve their painful symptoms. We hope the federal government heeds common sense and the will of majorities in 10 states and opts not to crack down on medical-marijuana users. Don't they have anything better to do?
(snip)
Ten states, including California with 1996's Prop. 215, have passed legislation that let doctors prescribe marijuana for treatment of illnesses including AIDS, cancer and glaucoma. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled in December that so long as the weed wasn't sold, transported across state lines or used for nonmedicinal purposes, states could adopt and enforce their own medical marijuana laws.
(snip)
With so many actual security threats at home and abroad, the federal government has opted time and again to concentrate some of its vast resources on forcing seriously ill people onto the streets in search of medicine. It is just this kind of waste of time and effort that gives government a bad name and compounds the suffering of the most afflicted among us.
Now that the court has reasserted federal control, it's up to Congress to halt the overzealous pot prosecutions of doctors and patients who use marijuana as medicine with their state's approval.
They may soon get their chance: the House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on bipartisan legislation next week that would protect state-approved users of medical marijuana.
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2005/06/07/opinion/editorials/6605200816.txt
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