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.
At a news conference announcing the suit, 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."
The ACLU's lawsuit contends that the Administration's plan to prosecute
From: ACLU Newsfeed Owner 
doctors who prescribe marijuana for pateints with illnesses like cancer and
AIDS intrudes on the dcotor-patient relationship in violation of the First
Amendment.
"The lawsuit doesn't deal with whether marijuana is efficacious as a medicine
or not whether people should be smoking it or taking it," said Dr. Marcus A.
Conant, in an interview with the New York Times. Conant, an AIDS  specialist
in San Francisco, is the lead plaintiff in the case.  "The suit is all about
freedom of speech." 
In response to the ongoing controversy, the Clinton Administration recently
ordered an 18-month study of clinical, medical and scientific evidence on the
medical use of marijuana.  
USA Today's Baby Boomer panel approved the initiative.  "Why can't we stop
all our bitching and moaning, spend some money and figure out what the
medical uses really are?" asked William Paprota of Overland Park, Kansas.
 "Why can't we explore it a little bit?"
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