The Seattle Times
Medicinal marijuana legal in Virginia
Jan.  6, 1997
              So why is the White House attacking such
                 laws in California and Arizona?
                       by Associated Press
    RICHMOND, Va. - New laws in California and Arizona legalizing
marijuana for medicinal use provoked a strong rebuke from the White
House - yet a similar law passed in Virginia nearly 20 years ago has
gone largely unnoticed.
    Virginia legislators passed the measure in 1979 as a part of an
overall effort to loosen state laws against possession and
distribution of small amounts of the drug.
    It prohibits prosecution of people who possess marijuana if they
have a valid prescription for the drug and are using it to treat
cancer or glaucoma.
    The law also bars the prosecution of doctors or pharmacists for
dispensing or distributing marijuana for medical purposes.
    Because there is no way to fill a marijuana prescription, the
Virginia law was aimed at preventing arrest or providing a defense
for patients who might be arrested for possessing marijuana, said Dr.
William Regelson, a professor at the Medical College of Virginia
Hospitals.
Little or no legal impact
    Neither Regelson nor the state Department of Health Professions
knew if any Virginia doctors have prescribed marijuana since the law
was approved.
    Virginia's medical marijuana exception has had little, if any,
legal impact. A Richmond Times-Dispatch search of Virginia Supreme
Court cases, state Court of Appeals cases and opinions from the state
attorney general did not turn up any citations of the law.
    A spokesman for the federal Drug Enforcement Administration also
was unfamiliar with Virginia's pioneering law.
    "I don't know anything about the law," DEA spokesman Van  Quarles
said Friday. `We're looking at California and Arizona as if they're
setting the pace, and we find that Virginia has similar laws
already."
Drug use OK'd in election
    The Clinton administration has warned that doctors in California
and Arizona could lose prescription-writing privileges or face
criminal charges for recommending the drug. The doctors also could be
excluded from Medicare and Medicaid programs.
    In November, voters in both states approved measures legalizing
marijuana for medicinal use.
    In Arizona, Proposition 200 allows doctors to prescribe the drug
to critically ill patients if two licensed physicians agree on the
use and offer research on its appropriateness.
    California's Proposition 215 decriminalizes possession of
marijuana by patients and care-givers if its use is recommended by a
physician.
    Some research has suggested marijuana is useful in relieving
internal eye pressure in glaucoma; for controlling nausea in cancer
patients on chemotherapy; and for combating wasting, a severe weight
loss associated with AIDS.
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