Buzzby

Legal Battle For Pot Renewed
Woman seeking medicinal use
Guy Ashley | San Jose Mercury News | 11/24/2005

An Oakland woman whose landmark medicinal marijuana case was rebuffed five months ago by the U.S. Supreme Court renewed her legal fight Wednesday by filing papers in a federal appeals court.

Lawyers for Angel Raich, 40, filed a brief in the federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals arguing that federal efforts to restrict medicinal marijuana violate her rights to take the only medication that allows her to avoid intolerable pain and death.

The brief thus marks a new legal strategy for Raich, who previously had argued that federal drug laws traditionally focus on interstate commerce and thus did not apply to Raich's use of locally grown marijuana.

That argument was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court in a 6-3 ruling in June. The latest legal salvo by Raich also argues that prohibiting her from taking medically necessary cannabis would violate her due process rights, and that the federal Controlled Substances Act does not allow the federal government to prohibit medicinal use within a state that authorizes it.

California is one of 10 states with laws allowing the use of medicinal marijuana. Raich suffers from an inoperable brain tumor and a ``wasting syndrome'' that makes it extremely difficult for her to hold down her food. After trying 35 different pharmaceutical treatments, Raich said, she found that marijuana is the only drug she can tolerate that holds her seizures and other symptoms in check.

Raich's appeal will be heard by the same three-judge panel that upheld her right to use medicinal marijuana in 2003. That decision was reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court in June.

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killer12382

Keep up the good fight. These justices MAY side with her IF she provides them with the correct legal arguement.

faulninja

i think that if she had tried the case like it is now last year it would maybe have come colser to passing if not passing. with the court getting more and more right wing our chances dwindle for a court ruling in our favor, making it then to pass legislation.

killer12382

You're right about that. The courts are now swinging to the right and the chances of getting a fair ruling from a bunch of "christian" right wing conservatives is slim to none.

Liberty4All

The 9th Circuit is the most pro-freedom court in the nation. She will probably win there, but the Supreme Court is strongly anti-freedom so it will probably overturn a positive decision from the 9th Curcuit.

ethanol7

It was actually the conservative justices who sided with her on the interstate commerce argument.

I think that with the court moving more right, they will actually make a sound decision based on the law the way they are supposed to. With the liberal court we have had lately, it hasn't been about law, it has been about feelings, that's why their decisions have been all over the map.

I personally feel safer knowing that the law will be interpreted as it stands and not twisted by the minds of liberal feelers.

I know this case is a very emotional one, how could you not feel for someone who can not take the only medecine that helps them. But those of you who actually believe that liberal justices will somehow save this woman are blinded by your feelings and lack the capability for logical thought.

Logic will win everytime, but the illogical will put up a hell of a fight.

ethanol7

A true Christian would try to save whatever life this woman has left. And a true justice would interpret the law to protect the rights guaranteed by the constitution. I am for the legalization of marijuana, I am Christian, and I am a conservative. I call things as I see them. And if you don't drop the anti-Christian rhetoric then we can never win this fight.

Religion is not the issue, it is logic.

Buzzby

Religion is definitely part of the issue. Instead of using logic, which would dictate that marijuana should be legalized because marijuana prohibition causes far more harm than marijuana, we are ruled by conservative "Christian" moralists who fear that someone might be having fun without paying a penalty for it.

Note that both Killer12382 and I put the word "Christian" in quotation marks, indicating that these people are Christian in name only. To see what so-called "Christian Conservatives" are doing to this country, click the Theocracy Watch link in my sig.