== Forwarded Message Follows =========================================
From: "Carl E. Olsen" 
@Subject: Class Action Suit to Block Feds on 
Doctors, Patients File Class Action Suit
to Block Federal Punishments for Medical Marijuana
        LOS ANGELES, January 14 - A group of physicians and patients today
filed a class action suit in federal court in San Francisco seeking an
injunction blocking federal officials from taking any punitive action
against physicians who simply recommend the medical use of marijuana to
their patients.
        The lawsuit names as defendants: Gen. Barry McCaffrey, Director of
the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy; Thomas Constantine,
Administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA); Janet
Reno, Attorney General of the United States; and Donna Shalala, Secretary
of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Representing the
plaintiffs are the San Francisco firm of Altshuler, Berzon, Nussbaum,
Berzon & Rubin and the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern
California.
        Graham Boyd, an attorney with Altshuler, Berzon, Nussbaum, Berzon &
Rubin, said, "Our view is that the federal effort to gag physicians is
blatantly unconstitutional. Discussions between a physician and patient
about the risks and benefits of medical marijuana constitute protected
speech under the First Amendment."
        Boyd continued, "The Supreme Court has said that the government may
not bar physicians from discussing contraception or abortion, both
controversial topics in their day. By the same logic, federal officials may
not use controversy over marijuana as an excuse to intrude into the
sanctity of the physician-patient relationship."
        Dr. Marcus Conant, a San Francisco specialist in AIDS treatment and
the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, said, "The federal government has
threatened me and doctors like me with dire consequences for simply
discussing medical marijuana with my patients. My colleagues and I have
seen marijuana work to relieve nausea and stimulate appetite where other
drugs fail, and scores of studies support our observations."
        Dr. Conant continued, "The medical community deserves more respect
than having a retired General in Washington tell us how to practice
medicine. Physicians should be allowed to discuss medical marijuana without
having to risk arrest or other punishment by the federal government."
        Dr. Arnold Leff, a Santa Cruz AIDS specialist who served in the
White House Drug Abuse Office under President Richard Nixon, added, "By
approving Proposition 215, California voters have endorsed the right of
patients to use marijuana medically under a physician's care. To give force
to that right, physicians also must be protected."
        Jo Daly, a former police commissioner of San Francisco and a
patient who uses marijuana medically, said, "The federal government is
trying to intimidate the doctors who treat me for cancer. Marijuana
literally saved my life by stopping the horrible vomiting caused by my
chemotherapy. Bureaucrats like Barry McCaffrey want to get in between me
and my doctors and make me another victim of their drug policies. This
began as a war on drugs. Now it's become a war on doctors."
RESPONSE TO FEDERAL PLAN
        The lawsuit is a direct response to the Clinton administration's
December 30 announcement of its plan to fight implementation of Proposition
215 by threatening doctors with a range of punishments if they are found to
be recommending medical marijuana to their patients. The defendants named
in the suit are the key federal officials involved in drafting and
implementing the Clinton administration strategy.
        Proposition 215 altered California law by creating a new exemption
for a specific group of people - seriously ill patients who are using
marijuana on the "recommendation or approval" of a physician. If an
arrested patient is to be exonerated, he or she must prove that a physician
advised that marijuana was medically appropriate for that patient.
        However, given the new threats of federal action against physicians
who recommend marijuana, doctors face a difficult choice when they observe
that marijuana appears to be medically appropriate for a patient. Doctors
can inform patients of their truthful medical opinion, and expose
themselves and their practice to punitive action that could destroy their
livelihood, or censor their discussions with patients, depriving them of
useful treatment alternatives and eroding the trust and confidence
essential to effective medical care.
        The lawsuit filed today argues that such a choice is no choice at
all, and that the threat against doctors is in fact an unconstitutional
intrusion into communications between doctor and patient with the potential
to harm both. The doctor's recommendation to the patient, and his or her
public acknowledgement of that recommendation in the context of a criminal
proceeding against the patient, both constitute protected speech for which
any penalties at all would be impermissible, the suit argues.
PUNISHMENT OF ABUSES STILL POSSIBLE
        Boyd, the attorney helping with the suit, said, "There must be a
means available to punish those who would abuse the new law, whether they
be bogus 'patients' or profiteering doctors. And our lawsuit is carefully
phrased to provide no comfort to a doctor who recommends marijuana without
having a good-faith diagnosis, based on a bona fide physician-patient
relationship."
        "But," Boyd continued, "the Clinton administration vastly
overreached in deciding to threaten all California doctors. That overly
broad threat made this action necessary."
        "This lawsuit," said Dr. Conant, the San Francisco AIDS care
physician, "directly challenges the federal government's declaration that
any doctor making any recommendation for marijuana is committing a
punishable act - and it offers real hope of protection for responsible
physicians in this state."
                                   ###
Facts About the Physician/Patient Class Action Suit
January 14, 1997
CASE NAME: Conant, et al vs. McCaffrey, et al     CASE #: _______________
COURT: United States District Court for the Northern District of California
PURPOSE: To seek an injunction to protect California physicians from
punishment by federal officials for the act of discussing or recommending
medical marijuana for a patient.
PLAINTIFFS: (below)
LEGAL TEAM:
Altshuler, Berzon, Nussbaum, Berzon & Rubin - San Francisco
        Lowell Finley, Graham Boyd and Jonathan Weissglass
American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California - San Francisco
        Anne Brick
DEFENDANTS:
Gen. Barry McCaffrey, Director, White House Office of National Drug Control
Policy; Thomas Constantine, Administrator, U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration; Janet Reno, Attorney General of the United States; and
Donna Shalala, Secretary, Department of Health and Human Services.
SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT:
        A physician's discussion or recommendation of medical marijuana for
a patient is speech protected by the First Amendment. The Supreme Court has
said that the government may not bar physicians from discussing
contraception or abortion, both controversial topics in their day. By the
same logic, the federal government may not use controversy over marijuana
as an excuse to intrude into the sanctity of the physician-patient
relationship. The federal effort to gag physicians should be enjoined and
declared unconstitutional.
        In this class action on behalf of physicians throughout California,
plaintiffs seek an injunction against federal agenices, including the Drug
Enforcement Administration, Department of Justice and Department of Health
and Human Services, barring punitive action against physicians for the mere
discussion or recommendation of medical marijuana for a patient. In a
December 30 White House announcement, these agencies officially threatened
to prosecute physicians, strip them of their drug-prescribing licenses, and
bar them from participating in the Medicare and Medicaid programs.
LIST OF PLAINTIFFS --
PHYSICIANS IN AIDS CARE:
Dr. Marcus Conant, AIDS clinician, Conant Medical Group, San Francisco
Dr. Arnold Leff, family care physician specializing in AIDS, Santa Cruz
Dr. Neil Flynn, AIDS clinician, professor, University of California at
Davis
Dr. Milton Estes, AIDS clinician, Mill Valley
Dr. Stephen Follansbee, AIDS clinician, San Francisco
Dr. Stephen O'Brien, AIDS clinician, Berkeley
Dr. Robert Scott III, general practitioner specializing in AIDS, Oakland
PHYSICIANS IN CANCER TREATMENT:
Dr. Debu Tripathy, breast cancer medical oncologist, professor, University
of California, San Francisco
Dr. Donald Northfelt, specialist in AIDS and cancer treatment, Palm Springs
PATIENTS:
Jo Daly, former police commissioner, San Francisco, cancer patient
Keith Vines, deputy San Francisco district attorney, San Francisco, AIDS
patient
Judith Cushner, San Francisco, breast cancer survivor
Valerie Corral, Santa Cruz, epilepsy sufferer
ORGANIZATIONS:
Bay Area Physicians for Human Rights
Being Alive: People with AIDS/HIV Action Coalition, AIDS patient advocacy
organization, Los Angeles
                 B o o k s  b y  S t e v e  K u b b y:
    http://www.alpworld.com/HEALTH/Bio/Steve.html
--The Politics of Consciousness
    (foreword by Terence McKenna)
    http://www.alpworld.com/HEALTH/Bio/politics.html
--Why Marijuana Should be Legal
    (co-author Ed Rosenthal, illustrations by Garry Trudeau)
    http://www.alpworld.com/HEALTH/Prop_215/medical.html
        T H E   M E D I C A L   M A R I J U A N A   A R C H I V E S
                       http://www.alpworld.com/HEALTH
--UNDERSTANDING YOUR RIGHTS UNDER PROP. 215
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