Women in medical pot case vow to keep using despite court ruling

Women in medical pot case vow to keep using despite court ruling

By Guy Ashley and Ivan Delventhal

CONTRA COSTA TIMES

Two California women at the center of a landmark medical marijuana case said they would continue to smoke pot to ease their medical problems, despite a U.S. Supreme Court ruling this morning that said federal authorities could arrest and prosecute them for doing so.

"I cannot stop using cannabis," said Angel Raich, 39, of Oakland, who uses marijuana every two waking hours to help with a host of problems linked to an inoperable brain tumor. "If I stopped using cannabis I would die."

Raich and Diane Monson of Oroville were the two plaintiffs whose bid to undermine federal prohibitions of marijuana was turned back by the high court in a 6-3 vote.

Monson, 48, said she also would continue smoking pot to relieve back pain.

Their approach reflected a defiance of a federal ban on marijuana that was reaffirmed by medical pot advocates across the Bay Area. Many said this morning's ruling simply left intact a clash between federal law and a 1996 California law that asserts people have the right to use marijuana for medical needs.

"Nothing's really changed," said Richard Lee, owner of SR71, a coffee shop and medical marijuana dispensary in downtown Oakland. "We've been operating in the same legal climate for the past five years."

Lee said it's possible that federal authorities will be emboldened by the ruling and launch a crackdown on operations like SR71. But Lee said he's not worried, because any move to arrest and prosecute him would eventually have to go before a jury in a state that consistently shows support for medical marijuana.

"If they try to prosecute anybody, a jury's going to acquit them," he said. "Politically, (federal authorities)know it's suicide."

The ruling came just a day before Alameda County supervisors are slated to vote on a proposed new set of licensing requirements for the seven medical marijuana dispensaries now doing business in the county.

Supervisor Nate Miley, sponsor of the proposed law, said he believes his colleagues will follow through and approve the regulations, which would require all dispensaries be at least 1,000 feet from schools but would allow on-site marijuana use through a technique called vaporization.

But Miley said the Supreme Court ruling may force the county to put the brakes on a separate initiative to set up a dispensary at county-owned Fairmont Hospital in San Leandro.

"Personally, I would like to see us push the envelope as far as we can," Miley said. "But there's no doubt that this could potentially raise concerns for the county, with the possibility of federal intervention."

Rory Little, a former federal prosecutor who is a professor at Hastings law school in San Francisco, said federal authorities are likely still formulating plans to respond to the ruling and to deal with medical marijuana in California and nine other states that allow it.

That means any federal enforcement actions will likely be a few weeks away, Little said, adding that providers of medical pot would be wise to make sure they are helping people with legitimate medical needs, rather than using state law as a smokescreen to allow recreational users to smoke pot.

"I've always said that if the state actually put some serious effort into an honest medical program involving marijuana, the feds would leave them alone," Little said. "The problem is they've never done anything close to that. Instead, you have a bunch of tie-dye shirt-wearing people giving marijuana to anyone who can say five words in a row."