The Sandspur

Issue date: 12/3/04 Section: News

Media Credit: KRTCAMPUS THE PLANTIFF SPEAKS OUT: Angel Raich delivers a statement outside the Supreme Court.

Media Credit: KRTCAMPUS HOT TOPIC: Controversy surronds the issue of medicinal marijuana, as the protestors standing outside the Supreme Court above illustrate.

The controversy of whether marijuana should be used for beneficial medical purposes is once again being debated, this time by the Supreme Court. Those against the state laws of marijuana for medical use argue that people might abuse the laws and use them as an excuse to gain access to drugs.

Since 1996, eleven states have passed laws permitting marijuana use in medical cases with a doctor's recommendation. Among them are California, Arizona, Oregon, and Vermont. The drug is prescribed in these states only in extreme cases and when all other prescription drugs have failed to help ease the pain. Patients have turned to the drug because despite its negative effects; it has helped them more than other medicines.

Supreme Court justices turned down a proposal three years ago to protect distributors of marijuana for medical purposes from federal charges. Now they are debating the issue of whether federal agents should be able to go into sick people's homes to prevent them from growing their own marijuana, even if the state and their doctors have allowed them to do so.

Some people fear that if the Court determines that marijuana can be homegrown by sick people, then the federal government would lose control over the spread and use of illegal drugs. Paul Clement, an acting solicitor general, said, "Smoked marijuana really doesn't have any future in medicine."

There is also a fear of abuse of the law and people using medical purposes as an excuse for use of the drug. "Everybody will say mine is medical," said Justice Stephen Breyer.

A third fear is that the homegrown marijuana will spread across state borders. Justice Ruth Ginsburg has refuted this and has said that among California medical marijuana users, "Nobody's buying anything. Nobody's selling anything." Justice O'Connor has also stated that homegrown marijuana for patients never extends across state borders.

Angel Raich, a California mother, is at the front of the argument. She has filed a lawsuit to allow her to continue using marijuana to help ease the pain of her brain tumor. She considers the decision one of life or death for her. Her physician has said that marijuana is the only drug, out of over three dozen that have been prescribed to her, that works. "I really hope and pray the justices allow me to live," Raich said.

The debate is a highly controversial issue, and the outcome is uncertain. The Supreme Court is expected to make a decision by next summer.

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