Attorneys for an Oakland woman filed a new brief Wednesday with a federal appeals court seeking sanction for her use of marijuana to treat her pain and illness.

Angel Raich, who suffers from numerous ailments including a brain tumor, severe weight loss and chronic pain, sued in 2002, challenging the federal government's constitutional power to regulate interstate commerce as it extends to locally grown marijuana, supplied without charge to patients whose use is permitted by state law.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Raich in June but sent the case back for consideration of various issues to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The appeals court had ruled in Raich's favor on the broader question in 2003.

Raich's new brief, filed with the Ninth Circuit, claims protection for her marijuana use under the Constitution's Fifth, Ninth, and Tenth amendments. She argues that she has a fundamental liberty to take the only medication that allows her to avoid intolerable pain and death, and that prohibiting her from taking medically necessary marijuana would violate the due process clause.

The brief also asserts that the federal Controlled Substances Act does not allow the federal government to prohibit medical use within a state that authorizes it -- as California does under Proposition 215, which voters approved in 1996.

The appeal no longer lists Raich's original co-plaintiff, Diane Monson, who helped initiate the lawsuit after federal authorities raided her home in Butte County looking for the pot she was growing to treat back pain.

Newshawk: Dale Gieringer
Pubdate: Thu, 24 Nov 2005
Source: Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Webpage:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/24/BABADIGEST2.DTL
Page: B - 5
Contact: letters@sfchronicle.com
Copyright: 2005 Hearst Communications Inc.
Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388
Author: Patrick Hoge
Cited: Gonzales v. Raich http://www.angeljustice.org