The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) repeated its position this past Monday that doctor’s in California cannot evade federal drug laws “by claiming that they are merely providing their patients with ‘recommendations’ in accordance with their best medical judgment.” The announcement was a response to a class action suit filed in federal court by physicians, patients, and a San Francisco prosecutor who has AIDS, seeking an injunction to prevent federal officials from taking any punitive action against physicians who recommend the medical use of marijuana to their patients in compliance with California law.
According to Associated Press, plaintiffs offered to settle the federal case if the government would agree to bar prosecution of doctors who, in good faith, discuss the use of medical marijuana or recommend it for their patients.
“It’s a straight-forward First Amendment case,” said Graham Boyd, an attorney for the plaintiffs. “The First Amendment protects the rights of doctors and patients to talk about the full range of medical treatment, and the feds have no basis for interfering with that statement.”
Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey said that he will reconsider his view of medical marijuana if health professionals determine it is effective, during a speech at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University last evening.
For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre of NORML at (202) 483-5500 or Bill Zimmerman of Americans for Medical Rights at (310) 394-2952.