U.S. District Judge William Alsup ruled last Thursday that doctors may recommend marijuana to patients who may benefit from it without fear that federal authorities may strip them of their license to prescribe medicine, or otherwise impose sanctions.
When the voter-approved medical marijuana law known as Proposition 215 passed in 1996, the Clinton administration announced that doctors who recommended marijuana faced losing their federal license to prescribe medicine. In January 1997, doctors and patients statewide filed a class action suit against the federal government alleging the government’s threat violated their free speech rights under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
In his decision Judge Alsup expanded a previously granted temporary injunction that prevented the government from revoking a doctor’s license to prescribe medicine and made it permanent.
“Contrary to the government’s argument, it is not true that a mere recommendation will necessarily lead to the commission of a federal offense,” Alsup wrote in his decision. “To the contrary, such recommendations can lead to lawful and legitimate responses. In the marketplace of ideas, few questions are more deserving of free-speech protection than whether regulations affecting health and welfare are sound public policy.”
In further citing the importance of a doctor being able to freely treat his or her patients, Alsup wrote, “[I]t will be the professional opinion of doctors that marijuana is the best therapy or at least should be tried. If such recommendations could not be communicated, then the physician-patient relationship would be seriously impaired.”
“My hope is that this ruling effectively puts an end to the fear that physicians have been experiencing,” said Graham Boyd, Esq., Director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Drug Program, who represented the doctors and patients suing the federal government. “(This decision) puts the federal government on notice that if they do threaten doctors, they’ll be back in court and they’ll lose.”
For more information, please contact Graham Boyd, Esq., of the ACLU at (203) 787-4188.
