ARTICLE: Bush Lawyer Blasts State Marijuana Laws

[Murray Charters <mcharters@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Aug 10, 4:53 PM EDT
Bush Lawyer Blasts State Marijuana Laws

By ANNE GEARAN
Associated Press Writer

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- California and other states that want to make marijuana 
available to sick or dying patients are
flouting federal drug laws in much the same way that Southern states defied 
national civil rights laws, a senior Bush
administration lawyer said.

California is ground zero in a long tug of war with the federal government over 
the medical value of marijuana and the
power of state governments and voters to make exceptions for people who may 
benefit from the illegal drug.

Five major federal lawsuits involve those who grow, use or recommend marijuana 
for medical use in California.

The Bush administration has asked the Supreme Court to settle the latest fight 
by agreeing that Washington has the
power to revoke medical licenses of doctors who invoke state laws and recommend 
pot for their patients.

States cannot choose when to abide by federal law and when not to, Justice 
Department lawyer Mark Quinlivan said
Saturday.

"You cannot cherry-pick," said Quinlivan, the top federal trial lawyer in three 
of the pending cases and a panelist at
an American Bar Association discussion of medical marijuana.

California voters passed Proposition 215 in 1996, legalizing marijuana for 
medical use. Eight other states followed
suit.

Federal law recognizes no medical purpose for the drug and bans its private 
production, sale or use.

"There is a basic question of what power does California have," said lawyer 
Gerald Uelman, Quinlivan's opponent in two
cases. The federal law regulating drugs "is not a federal takeover of the 
medical system" or the duty of doctors to
help the very ill, Uelman said.

Uelman and a California attorney general's office lawyer objected to the civil 
rights analogy and the notion that
California is asserting the same kind of states' rights argument that Alabama 
used to try to avoid desegregating its
schools.

When government agents shut down marijuana growers who serve sick people, it is 
"not acting with the same degree of
moral propriety as it did to end civil rights abuses," said Taylor Carey, a 
California special assistant attorney
general who wrote a friend-of-the-court brief backing medical marijuana.

California's fight with Washington has extended through the Democratic Clinton 
administration and the Republican Bush
administration. The Supreme Court ruled against an Oakland marijuana 
distribution club two years ago, finding the
federal drug law allows no exception for people to use pot to ease pain from 
cancer, AIDS or other illnesses.

The high court has not yet said whether it will hear the latest California 
case. The Bush administration wants the
court to strike down a lower court ruling blocking punishment or investigation 
of physicians who tell patients they may
be helped by the drug.

The administration's appeal, filed last month, argued that the ruling of the 
San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeals keeps the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration from protecting the 
public.

The ruling licenses doctors to treat patients with illegal drugs, and 
physicians who urge patients to use pot are no
different from a doctor who might recommend heroin or LSD, Solicitor General 
Theodore Olson argued.

At issue is a Clinton-era policy that requires revocation of federal 
prescription licenses of doctors who recommend
marijuana.

The appeals court said the policy interferes with free-speech rights of doctors 
and patients. Physicians should be able
to speak candidly with patients without fear of government sanctions, the court 
said, but they can be punished if they
help patients obtain the drug.

---

On the Net:

American Bar Association:


Supreme Court case file in Walters v. Conant:


SOURCE: Associated Press NewsWire


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