Medical Pot Users Have The Blues

There is confusion and anger after the Supreme Court ruled Monday that people who smoke pot for medicinal purposes can be prosecuted for violating federal drug laws.

"Our Supreme Court just a year ago said it was okay for doctors to recommend and they can't be prosecuted for telling patients to use it. Therefore, doctors can tell you to use it," said medical marijuana user and talk show host Montel Williams on . "But once they tell you to use it, they can come and prosecute you. How ridiculous is that?"

The justices concluded that state medical marijuana laws don't protect users from a federal ban on the drug.

The decision is a defeat for medical marijuana advocates who had lobbied successfully in 10 states to allow marijuana use for medical reasons.

Justice John Paul Stevens, writing the 6-3 decision, said that Congress could change the law to allow medical use of marijuana.

The closely watched case was an appeal by the Bush administration in a case that it lost in late 2003. At issue was whether the prosecution of medical marijuana users under the federal Controlled Substances Act was constitutional.

The ruling is a serious setback not only for proponents of medical marijuana who say it is helpful for serious and chronic pain, but also for states' rights, reports CBS News Correspondent Bob Fuss.

"The sideshow of medical marijuana has led some teenagers to believe marijuana is not only not harmful for you, its good for you, it's medicine. That's not true," said federal drug enforcement chief John Walters.

Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote in the minority opinion that the federal law 'stifles an express choice by some states concerned for the lives and liberties of their people."

Crime fighters in California and other states with medical marijuana laws insisted they were not about to start looking for reasons to shut down the dispensaries.
The ruling does not strike down medical marijuana laws in California, Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont or Washington state. And state and local authorities in most of those states said they have no interest in arresting people who smoke pot because their doctors recommend it to ease pain. (Arizona also has a law on the books allowing medical marijuana, but no active program.)

Oregon, where more than 10,000 residents hold medical marijuana cards, stopped issuing new cards on Monday, but elsewhere officials assured the public the situation was status quo.

"People shouldn't panic. There aren't going to be many changes," California Attorney General Bill Lockyer said. "Nothing is different today than it was two days ago, in terms of real world impact."

It remains to be seen whether the Drug Enforcement Administration will crack down on medical marijuana users. The Justice Department didn't comment Monday.

Paul Armentano of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws said arrests of ailing patients have been rare, but the government has arrested more than 60 people in medical marijuana raids since September 2001.

Most of those arrests have been in California — the first state to allow medical marijuana, in 1996. On Monday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has previously supported use of pot by sick people, said only: "It is now up to Congress to provide clarity."

In Montana, the 119 residents who paid $200 to get on the state's confidential registry won't face state prosecution, said state Attorney General Mike McGrath. He said the state is not obligated to help federal authorities prosecute people following state law.

While the Supreme Court justices expressed sympathy for two seriously ill California women who brought the case, the majority agreed that federal agents may arrest even sick people who use the drug as well as the people who grow pot for them.
One of them, Angel Raich, said she uses marijuana for pain and nausea, and was smoking it she says when she heard the Supreme Court had ruled against her challenge to federal marijuana laws.

"We're ill, we're not trying to be disobedient. We're just using this medicine because it's saving our lives," Raich told CBS News Correspondent John Blackstone.

In the court's main decision, Stevens raised concerns about abuse of marijuana laws. "Our cases have taught us that there are some unscrupulous physicians who over-prescribe when it is sufficiently profitable to do so," he said.

"Absolute lie," retorted Williams, who suffers from multiple sclerosis. "And the reason why I'm saying that is because right now, the most abused drugs in this country are prescription medications like OxyContin, Vicodin and others."

Williams told Early Show co-anchor Hannah Storm the next step is for congressional and Drug Enforcement Administration action to change the laws.

"Put it in the same category as cocaine, morphine and other drugs and let doctors prescribe it," Williams said.