BY DEREK ROSE -- DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
The federal government can bust sick people who smoke pot on doctor's orders, a divided Supreme Court decided yesterday.
The 6-3 ruling was a setback for efforts to let patients legally use marijuana to alleviate the effects of chemotherapy, chronic pain, AIDS and other ailments. (M.S., Glaucoma, Cancer)
Two sick California women, who brought the case against the federal government after having their pot seized in 2002, said they'd keep smoking it.
"I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing," said Angel Raich, 39, of Oakland, who smokes marijuana to cope with seizures, a brain tumor, nausea and pain. "I don't really have a choice but to, because if I stop using cannabis, I would die."
California and nine other states allow patients to grow and smoke pot with a doctor's recommendation. Yesterday's ruling means patients in those states can now be arrested by federal authorities.
Justice Department spokesman John Nowacki wouldn't say whether authorities plan to arrest sick pot smokers. But a department source said officials have no plans to change the current policy of targeting only medical marijuana distribution networks.
State Sen. Vincent Leibell of Putnam County, the sponsor of a measure to bring medical marijuana to New York, said the ruling would sink his bill. A spokesman for Majority Leader Joe Bruno agreed.
"To enact it, it would seem to me, would put New York residents in harm's way," Leibell (R-Patterson) said. "We'd in effect be sanctioning breaking federal law, which we can't do and won't do."
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Leibell said he can't understand why it's controversial to help alleviate pain and suffering. "This is no slippery slope," he said.
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