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JUSTICES REACT SKEPTICALLY MEDICAL-MARIJUANA ARGUMENTS
By: Jim Puzzanghera, San Jose Mercury News (CA), 11-29-04

WASHINGTON - Several U.S. Supreme Court justices reacted skeptically Monday to the legal arguments of two chronically ill California women seeking immunity from federal prosecution for smoking marijuana because state voters have approved its use for medical purposes.

The attorney for Angel Raich, 39, of Oakland and Diane Monson, of Butte County, argued that the federal government was violating the federal constitution in trying to prevent the two women from using marijuana prescribed by doctors, as allowed in California and 10 other states. The marijuana the women smoke to lessen severe chronic pain and avoid reactions from traditional drugs is grown only for their use and therefore is not an interstate commodity that the federal government can regulate, said their attorney, Randy Barnett.

But although several members of the court, particularly conservatives, feel strongly about preserving the rights of states, they and other justices appeared critical of Barnett's arguments that medical marijuana users should be immune from federal law that bans the drug as a harmful and addictive controlled substance.

Justice Antonin Scalia said it seemed logical that some of the estimated 100,000 Californians who use medical marijuana would buy it in the illegal market, making it an economic commodity that Congress could regulate. AndJustice Stephen Breyer said people who believe marijuana should be allowed for medicinal use -- a point of debate in the medical community -- should take their case to the federal Food and Drug Administration first.

"Medicine by regulation is better than medicine by referendum," Breyer said.

The case has ramifications in 10 other states that allow marijuana use for medicinal purposes despite a federal ban on the drug.

Paul Clement, who argued the case for the federal government as the acting solicitor general, said allowing "any little island of lawful possession" of marijuana would undermine the intent of Congress to ban the drug's use.