Rep. Lauch Faircloth (R-N.C.) has introduced legislation in Congress (S. 40) to severely sanction physicians who recommend the medical use of marijuana to seriously ill patients. The measure appears to be a direct response to the November passage of a California ballot initiative granting an affirmative medical defense under state law for patients who use marijuana medicinally with the recommendation of their physician. The California proposition also states that, “Physicians shall not be punished or denied any right or privilege for recommending marijuana to a patient for medical purposes.
Federal law already forbids doctors from prescribing marijuana.
“This legislation represents the most extreme position of those who oppose the medical use of marijuana — arresting and jailing physicians,” said NORML’s Executive Director R. Keith Stroup. He noted that doctors who recommend marijuana to a patient under 21 years of age may be sentenced to up to eight years in prison and/or fined $60,000 under the provisions of the bill. Other penalties include revoking physicians’ ability to write prescriptions and excluding doctors from participation in Medicare and state health care programs.
The proposed legislation states that, “A practitioner will be deemed to have ‘recommended’ the use of marihuana if the practitioner offered advice, or responded to a request for advice, suggesting the use of marihuana while acting in the course of his or her professional capacity.”
Graham Boyd, an attorney from California who is representing a group of physicians and patients that have filed a class action suit against the federal government for its issuance of similar threats against doctors who recommend marijuana, calls such restrictions illegal. “The Supreme Court has said that the government may not bar physicians from discussing contraception or abortion, both controversial topics in their day,” he stated in a January 15 press release. “By the same logic, federal officials may not use controversy over marijuana as an excuse to intrude on the sanctity of the physician-patient relationship.”
Sens. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) and James Inhofe (R-Okla.) are co-sponsoring the legislation, entitled the “Drug Use Prevention Act of 1997.” The measure has been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
For more information, please contact R. Keith Stroup, Esq., of NORML at (202) 483-5500. Copies of the legislation are available from NORML upon request.