Wednesday, December 17, 2003


Yahoo! News - U.S. Appeals Court Sets Aside Federal Marijuana Law
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A federal appeals court allowed two very sick California women on Tuesday to use marijuana, setting aside longstanding federal drug laws that bar such cultivation even for medical purposes.

Growing marijuana for medical purposes is legal in California under a 1996 voter-approved state law, but the measure clashes with federal law.

Angel (news - web sites) Raich, who has an inoperable brain tumor, and Diane Monson, who suffers from severe back pain, last year sued U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft (news - web sites). They sought an injunction against the act, saying the 1970 federal Controlled Substances Act was unconstitutional.

A district court ruled against the women in March, but in a rare afternoon ruling, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco reversed the decision.

"We find that the appellants' class of activities -- the intrastate noncommercial cultivation, possession and use of marijuana for personal medical purposes on the advice of a physician -- is, in fact, different in kind from drug trafficking," the three-judge panel ruled.

*Applause*