T
The420Guy
Guest
Pubdate: Fri, 04 Aug 2000
Source: San Francisco Examiner (CA)
Copyright: 2000 San Francisco Examiner
Contact: letters@examiner.com
Author: Bob Egelko of The Examiner Staff
U.S. VOICES THREAT ON POT RX
Argues that doctors urging use be barred from prescribing
The Clinton administration is continuing its war against California's medical marijuana law,
arguing in federal court that doctors who recommend the drug should lose their authority to
prescribe legal medicines.
"It doesn't matter what California says," Justice Department lawyer Joseph Lobue said
Thursday at a hearing on a suit seeking to protect doctors from punishment for advising their
patients to use marijuana. "There is a national standard."
A doctor who tells a patient that marijuana is the best remedy available for nausea or other
effects of treatments for cancer and AIDS "has recommended use of a drug that has been
found to be unsafe" by Congress and the Food and Drug Administration, Lobue said. He
likened it to a lawyer's recommending that a client commit perjury.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup must decide whether to extend, expand or withdraw an
order issued by another judge in 1997 barring the federal government from acting against
California doctors who recommended marijuana to their patients under the 1996 medical
marijuana initiative, Proposition 215.
The initiative allowed patients to use marijuana, based on a doctor's recommendation, without
risking prosecution under state drug laws. As a state measure, however, it could not override
federal laws against marijuana distribution.
The Clinton administration's drug policy chief, Barry McCaffrey, opposed Prop. 215 and
announced after its passage that any doctors who prescribed or recommended marijuana
would lose their federal licenses to prescribe drugs, would be excluded from Medicare and
Medi-Cal and could face criminal prosecution.
That prompted a lawsuit by a group of doctors and their patients, who said the government
was violating their freedom of speech. U.S. District Judge Fern Smith issued an injunction
protecting doctors, which will remain in effect until Alsup rules.
On another front, the Justice Department moved to shut down marijuana cooperatives and
clubs that blossomed across the state to distribute the drug to patients after Prop. 215. Last
month, however, a federal judge ruled that the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative could
provide marijuana to seriously ill patients who had no effective legal therapy available.
The Clinton administration has asked the Supreme Court to overturn an appellate ruling that
laid the foundation for the Oakland decision by recognizing a defense of "medical necessity"
against federal drug prosecutions.
At Thursday's hearing, American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Graham Boyd told Alsup that
many doctors remained afraid even to discuss marijuana with their patients, despite Smith's
injunction.
"There is nothing that favors use of marijuana that a physician can say and not risk
punishment," Boyd said. "That is censorship."
He said the current injunction protected doctors from punishment for recommending
marijuana but left them potentially vulnerable to criminal prosecution for aiding and abetting if
the government decided a doctor had tried to help a patient obtain the drug.
Lobue, the government's lawyer, denied that federal authorities were threatening criminal
prosecution but said doctors who suggested the use of any illegal drug risked losing their right
to participate in federally regulated programs, including drug prescription.
MAP posted-by: Derek
Source: San Francisco Examiner (CA)
Copyright: 2000 San Francisco Examiner
Contact: letters@examiner.com
Author: Bob Egelko of The Examiner Staff
U.S. VOICES THREAT ON POT RX
Argues that doctors urging use be barred from prescribing
The Clinton administration is continuing its war against California's medical marijuana law,
arguing in federal court that doctors who recommend the drug should lose their authority to
prescribe legal medicines.
"It doesn't matter what California says," Justice Department lawyer Joseph Lobue said
Thursday at a hearing on a suit seeking to protect doctors from punishment for advising their
patients to use marijuana. "There is a national standard."
A doctor who tells a patient that marijuana is the best remedy available for nausea or other
effects of treatments for cancer and AIDS "has recommended use of a drug that has been
found to be unsafe" by Congress and the Food and Drug Administration, Lobue said. He
likened it to a lawyer's recommending that a client commit perjury.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup must decide whether to extend, expand or withdraw an
order issued by another judge in 1997 barring the federal government from acting against
California doctors who recommended marijuana to their patients under the 1996 medical
marijuana initiative, Proposition 215.
The initiative allowed patients to use marijuana, based on a doctor's recommendation, without
risking prosecution under state drug laws. As a state measure, however, it could not override
federal laws against marijuana distribution.
The Clinton administration's drug policy chief, Barry McCaffrey, opposed Prop. 215 and
announced after its passage that any doctors who prescribed or recommended marijuana
would lose their federal licenses to prescribe drugs, would be excluded from Medicare and
Medi-Cal and could face criminal prosecution.
That prompted a lawsuit by a group of doctors and their patients, who said the government
was violating their freedom of speech. U.S. District Judge Fern Smith issued an injunction
protecting doctors, which will remain in effect until Alsup rules.
On another front, the Justice Department moved to shut down marijuana cooperatives and
clubs that blossomed across the state to distribute the drug to patients after Prop. 215. Last
month, however, a federal judge ruled that the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative could
provide marijuana to seriously ill patients who had no effective legal therapy available.
The Clinton administration has asked the Supreme Court to overturn an appellate ruling that
laid the foundation for the Oakland decision by recognizing a defense of "medical necessity"
against federal drug prosecutions.
At Thursday's hearing, American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Graham Boyd told Alsup that
many doctors remained afraid even to discuss marijuana with their patients, despite Smith's
injunction.
"There is nothing that favors use of marijuana that a physician can say and not risk
punishment," Boyd said. "That is censorship."
He said the current injunction protected doctors from punishment for recommending
marijuana but left them potentially vulnerable to criminal prosecution for aiding and abetting if
the government decided a doctor had tried to help a patient obtain the drug.
Lobue, the government's lawyer, denied that federal authorities were threatening criminal
prosecution but said doctors who suggested the use of any illegal drug risked losing their right
to participate in federally regulated programs, including drug prescription.
MAP posted-by: Derek