The Supreme Court recently ruled that federal law makes no exceptions for growing or distributing marijuana, even if the goal is to help seriously ill patients using marijuana as a medicine. How does this decision impact patients in the nine states that have legalized the medical use of marijuana under state law? Why does Congress refuse to reschedule marijuana to permit its use as a medicine under federal law?

Laws in nine states (Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington) legalizing the medical use of marijuana remain in effect despite the Supreme Court's decision. The Court ruled on the very narrow issue of whether patient support groups (so-called "buyer's clubs") that provide medical marijuana to seriously ill patients in California were protected from federal prosecution by a common law defense known as "medical necessity." The court ruled 8-0 that the federal law -- passed by Congress in 1970 -- defining marijuana as "having no accepted medical use" leaves no exception for medical use.

NORML filed an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief in this case, and hoped the Court would protect these patient-support efforts from federal prosecution. The sad result of this decision is that tens of thousands of seriously ill patients who use marijuana to relieve their pain and suffering will no longer have a safe and secure source for their medical marijuana. Now, they will either have to grow their own medicine or resort to the black market, with all the risks that entails.

However, NORML's chief complaint is directed at Congress for permitting this situation to exist. Many in Congress have confused a public health issue with the war on drugs, and in so doing, they have denied an effective medication to the seriously ill and dying.

Pending legislation in Congress, H.R.1344, introduced by Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), would resolve this problem by permitting physicians to prescribe marijuana in those states that have legalized its medicinal use under state law. Frank's bill, entitled the "States' Rights to Medical Marijuana Act," would also allow legislatures in states where the use of medical marijuana is permitted to designate a legal source of medical marijuana. The public needs to contact their members in Congress and demand action be taken on this specific proposal.