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   . . . a weekly service for the media on news items related to marijuana
                                prohibition.
                               July 25, 1997
            Washington State High Court Overturns Seeley Medical
                             Marijuana Decision
          July 25, 1997, Olympia, Washington:  The Supreme Court of
Washington rejected the use of marijuana as medicine in an 8-1 ruling
yesterday.  The decision reverses a declaratory judgment handed down by
Superior Court Judge Rosanne Buckner in October 1993 stating that a
seriously ill patient's need to use medical marijuana overrides the state's
interest in outlawing use of the drug.
          Defendant Ralph Seeley, an attorney from Takoma who suffers from a
rare form of bone cancer and uses marijuana to alleviate the nausea of
chemotherapy, argued last year that his constitutional rights were violated
by state and federal laws that allow doctors to prescribe cocaine and opium,
but not marijuana.  After nearly ten months of deliberations, the state's
highest court rejected his argument.
          Writing for the court, Judge Barbara Madsen opined: "The rights of
privacy and personal liberty do not establish a fundamental right to drug
treatment free of govemment police power."  The court also rejected the
assertion that their exists sufficient scientific evidence demonstrating
smoked marijuana to be an effective medicine.  "The evidence presented by
[Seeley] is insufficient to convince this court that it should interfere
with the broad judicially recognized prerogative of the Legislature."
          In addition, Seeley had argued that placing marijuana in Schedule
I is not rationally related to the state's purpose of preventing drug abuse
because other prohibited drugs like cocaine and opium are rescheduled to
allow for their limited medical use while still forbidden recreationally.
The court failed to agree and ruled that "the Legislature could reasonably
consider marijuana's widespread availability and its pattern for abuse as
requiring a different legislative response than to other substances [such as
cocaine.]"
          In a scathing dissent, Judge Richard Sanders cited Supreme Court
precedents set in Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey to establish
the defendant's constitutional right to self medicate with marijuana.  "The
majority cannot distinguish these cases," Sanders opined.  "If the state
cannot prohibit abortions consistent with due process, it can hardly
constitutionally prohibit drug use as its interest to do so is arguably less
important."
          Sanders also questioned the compassion of the court and the
Legislature.  "I wonder how many minutes of Seeley's agony the Legislature
and/or the majority of this court would endure before seeing the light," he
pondered.  "Words are insufficient to convey the needless suffering which
the merciless state has imposed."
          R. Keith Stroup, Executive Director of NORML criticized the
court's ruling and emphasized the need for voters to pass a state initiative
this fall that would strengthen a patient's right to use medicinal
marijuana.  "The majority's ruling in this case defies compassion," he
said.  "Furthermore, it underscores the need for voters to approve
Initiative 685, the Drug Medicalization Act of 1997.  This initiative would
confer some important legal protections for seriously ill medical patients."
          For more information, please contact either Keith Stroup of NORML
@ (202) 483-5500 or Attorney Jeffrey Steinbom of NORML's Amicus Curiae
Committee @ (206) 622-5117.
         (Meanwhile) Politics Surrounding Medical Marijuana Heat Up
                           In The Nation's Capitol
 Clinton Administration Defends Medical Mariinana ... While Trying To Defeat
                                    It At
                               The Same Time
          July 25, 1997, Washington, D.C.:  Politicians in the nation's
capitol are once agaln stoking the flames over medical marijuana.
          Spurred by former Republican presidential candidate Steve Forbes'
criticism of a District of Columbia initiative to allow for the legal use of
marijuana for medical purposes, Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey is chomping at the
bit against medical marijuana.  In a July 24 guest column that appeared in
The Washington Times, he asked the citizens of Washington, D.C. to "not
allow their compassion to blind them."  He further argued that any
endorsement of the use of marijuana as a medicine would "send the wrong
message to children."
          NORML Foundation Executive Director Allen St. Pierre cautioned
McCaffrey to avoid this type of public relations campaign against the will
of a majority of Americans.  He stated: "Last time Gen. McCaffrey engaged in
this type of 'low-road' rhetoric on a medical marijuana initiative,
California and Arizona citizens voted in greater numbers in favor of medical
marijuana than they did for the General's boss, President Clinton."
          McCaffrey also wrote to all of the political leaders in the
District of Columbia (including the President, Senate Majority Trent Lott
(R-Miss.) and House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and asked them to
vigorously and publicly condemn Initiative 57.
          The initiatives supporters hope to have the measure on the 1998
ballot.
          The NORML Foundation's St. Pierre noted: "It's terribly ironic
that the Clinton administration must now defend Governor Weld's support of
medical marijuana, while at the same time, it's lead anti-drug warrior is
trying to whip-up sufficient public sentiment against the further passage of
a state initiative endorsing legal medical access to the drug.  When will
the Drug Czar and the Clinton Administration accept the will of the voters
and stop denying seriously-ill medical patients relief from their pain and
ailments?"
          For more information on the Clinton administration's position on
medical marjuana and Washington, D.C.'s Initiative 57, please contact the
NORML Foundation's Allen St. Pierre @ (202) 483-8751.
                                    -END-
  MORE THAN 10 MILLION MARIJUANA ARRESTS SINCE 1965 . . . ANOTHER EVERY 54
                                  SECONDS!
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