By ELLEN BECK, UPI Science News Writer

WASHINGTON-
Alaska this week joined a small but growing list of states with medical marijuana laws in effect.

Yet, despite legislative and voter approval, the new statutes run head first into a stone wall of federal codes prohibiting the use of the drug in any circumstance.

California, Arizona, Washington State and Oregon also have laws that lift the risk of state prosecution for any seriously ill patient prescribed marijuana cigarettes for a very short list of illnesses and diseases. In most states, smoking medical marijuana is limited to treating glaucoma, chronic pain, seizures and spasms and AIDS and nausea from cancer chemotherapy.

The Minnesota Legislature this week also is considering similar legislation and voters in Colorado and Maine are expected to see ballot issues in 2000. Nevada voters have approved a law, but it requires a second verification vote that will be held in 2000 as well. Many of the states with laws, however, are still working out ways patients can legally obtain and use the drug.

Federal statutes prohibit the growth, use or distribution of marijuana for any purpose. So while patients may be exempt from state prosecution, they are not off the hook in the event of a federal drug bust.

"The new laws are trying to compromise and...help patients without running into conflict with federal law," said Paul Armentano, of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML. "No state is going to challenge the federal government."

Joe Lockhart, President Clinton’s press secretary, also reiterated last November the administration opposes legalized medical marijuana without convincing scientific evidence.

Nathan Barankin, of the California attorney general’s office, said while the state does not support legalized marijuana for recreational use, it has "engaged in a dialogue" with the federal government regarding the possibility of reclassifying marijuana from a Schedule I drug to a Schedule II prescription drug, as has been done with cocaine.

"Our objective is to fulfill the will of California voters (in 1996)," Barankin said. "The problems between the federal and state laws are almost irreconcilable."

See
Great LA Times Article Contrasts Lockyer’s Backing Of Prop 215 With Lungren’s Opposition
On Capitol Hill, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) introduced legislation March 2 to lift the federal ban and reclassify marijuana as a Schedule II drug. The bill would affect only those states that have laws on the books allowing the use of marijuana for medical purposes.
See
Federal Bill Reintroduced To Legalize Medical Marijuana
- NORML Special News Bulletin

In September 1998, the U.S. House went on record opposing a change in the classification of marijuana. In a special resolution, it agreed that "Congress continues to support the existing federal legal process for determining the safety and efficacy of drugs and opposes efforts to circumvent this process by legalizing marijuana, and other Schedule I drugs, for medicinal use without valid scientific evidence and the approval of the Food and Drug Administration."
See
The Congressional Record On The House Medical Marijuana Debate
Requires Powerful Anti-Emetics

It also called on the Food and Drug Administration to report back on "specific efforts underway" to enforce the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act with respect to marijuana and other Schedule I drugs.

In Philadelphia, a federal judge has allowed a class-action suit seeking to legalize the drugs use for medical reasons. U.S. District Judge Marvin Katz, in a ruling issued Wednesday, said the suit could proceed on the plaintiff’s claim that they were being denied the equal protection of the law, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
See
Major Disaster For Marijuana Prohibition!
Federal Court To Allow Class Action To Proceed On Equal Protection Question:
Why do eight people have the right to receive medical marijuana from the government,
but no one else does?

The lawsuit notes that the federal government settled a lawsuit in 1978 by allowing a group of 14 people with serious medical problems to receive as many as 300 marijuana cigarettes a month. The cigarettes were produced from government-grown crops.

Dr. Eric Voth, a Topeka, Kan. internist and addiction specialist and head of the International Drug Strategy Institute, said he doesn’t believe efforts to change federal law will be successful.

"They initiated the whole process back in the early 1970s," he said. "One executive director is quoted as saying this is pivotal to the move to legalize marijuana."
(Marijuananews note: I am that executive director, but that is really not quite what I said, but it is also irrelevant to the merits of the case.)

See
The Mfiles – More Paranoid Than The Xfiles But Less Believable;
Federal Funds Used For Prohibitionist Propaganda Against Washington State Medical Marijuana Intiative
Lies and Libels and Nonsense

Armentano said NORML sees recreational and medical use of marijuana as two separate issues. He said cocaine is a Schedule II drug but there has been no move to make it legal for recreational use and added recent public opinion polls show while up to 70 percent of respondents favored marijuana for medical use, less than 50 percent wanted it legalized for recreational use.