Why I Put Myself At Risk for Medical Marijuana
By Kevin Zeese*

On June 6 reform activists organized demonstrations in 55 cities at DEA
offices across the United States to protest their continued prosecution
of community-based marijuana dispensaries, growers and patients.

The DEA continues its prosecution even though research proves medical
marijuana is the most effective treatment available for many people with
chronic pain and other serious illness. They ignore seven statewide
referenda where the public voted overwhelmingly for medical marijuana.
They ignore court decisions that demonstrated that marijuana should be
available as a medicine. They've ignored efforts to negotiate to resolve
the matter and ensure safe access for the seriously ill. Despite all the
evidence and overwhelming public support, our democratic will is still
pushed aside by the Federal Government.

These are some of the reasons why I joined ten other reform leaders in
Washington, D.C. in closing down the employee's entrance to the
Department of Justice. We decided to take direct action, even if it
meant risking arrest - even though my organization Common Sense for Drug
Policy does not advocate illegal activity nor does it encourage its
staff to engage in illegal activity. The federal government is closing
all alternatives to resolving this matter. As individuals we must
challenge them.

A religious reform leader recently posted Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s
"Letter from a Birmingham Jail to a group of reform advocates. When Dr.
King's explanation for when direct action is appropriate was applied to
medical marijuana it was evident that we had no choice but to be civilly
disobedient and stand up against the injustice of federal government
attacks on medical marijuana patients and their dispensaries. Their
refusal to follow votes, research, needs of patients and court rulings
left us no choice. Direct action against the perpetrators of this
injustice was necessary.

Medical marijuana providers in states that have voted for allowing
medical use are heroes who are risking serious criminal charges for
providing medicine to the seriously ill. Reformers across the country
need to stand up and say no more - we need zero tolerance for medical
marijuana injustice.

The medical marijuana issue is not a new one for me. In 1978 when I
first became involved in reform I worked on NORML's lawsuit in the US
Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. We challenged the DEA's refusal to
allow medical access to marijuana. During this litigation, and others
where I represented patients being prosecuted for marijuana offenses, I
received scores of phone calls from doctors and patients who told
similar stories about how incredibly useful marijuana was to very
seriously ill people who would suffer needlessly without marijuana - but
with marijuana they were criminals.

After we won in the court of appeals and forced the DEA to hold an
administrative law hearing on medical marijuana I worked with the
Alliance for Cannabis Therapeutics, a group of patients and their
advocates, to develop the evidence supporting medical marijuana. In
doing so we not only compiled the testimony of dozens of patients,
doctors, nurses and researchers but we also compiled the published
research in medical journals and by state departments of health that
unequivocally showed that marijuana is a safe and effective medicine.
The DEA also put forward their best case and in hearings across the
United States we cross-examined these witnesses. The case continues to
be the largest compilation of information on medical marijuana in any
court proceeding.

Our case was overwhelming. Indeed, the Chief Administrative Law Judge
for the DEA, Francis L. Young, ended up ruling strongly in our favor.
Judge Young rejected as "specious" the most common argument of the DEA -
allowing medical use will send the wrong message saying: "The fear of
sending such a signal cannot be permitted to override the legitimate
need . . . of countless suffers for the relief marijuana can provide . .
. ." Judge Young ruled:

"The evidence in the record clearly shows that marijuana has been
accepted as capable of relieving the distress of great numbers of very
ill people, and doing so with safety . . . It would be unreasoning,
arbitrary and capricious for DEA to continue to stand between those
sufferers and the benefit of this substance . . .."

That was 14 years ago and the DEA has only escalated its efforts to
block the seriously ill from getting much needed medicine.

Unfortunately, Judge Young's ruling was a recommendation to the
politically appointed head of the DEA. The DEA, predictably, rejected
his ruling. Of course we appealed. Surprisingly we won, surprising
because administrative law strongly favors the administrative agency.
The court sent it back to the DEA for reconsideration. The DEA again
ruled against medical access. We appealed and won again. But the DEA
remained obstinate and on our final appeal we lost - not because of the
facts but because a basic tenet of administrative law is the courts
defer to the agency.

In the late-1980s research on medical marijuana was in the final phase
of a three-step research process. Two states - New York and California -
were conducting large-patient population research studies that when
completed would finish the final research phase and make marijuana
available as a medicine. By this time 34 states had passed laws allowing
the use of marijuana in research programs. At this critical moment the
First Bush Administration halted all research on medical marijuana.
There was no opportunity for public comment, no hearings - just an
internal agency decision that ignored state law, court decisions,
research findings and the urgent need of patients.

This frustrated medical marijuana patients - like a kettle covered while
boiling the pressure was building. Activists in San Francisco put a
medical marijuana referendum on the ballot in the mid 1990s -
Proposition P - it passed overwhelmingly. In 1996 California passed
proposition 215 - a series of states followed - Alaska, Washington,
Oregon, Nevada, Colorado, Maine and Washington, DC. Every state that
considered the issue voted in favor of medical marijuana. Then Hawaii
became the first legislature to pass a medical marijuana bill, other
states began moving in that direction.

Local governments began to implement the laws. Some put in place a
patient ID card system run by their Health Department or the prosecutor
investigated the medical dispensaries to ensure they were lawful. Local
medical associations began to educate their colleagues about medical use
of marijuana. Some cities began to find ways to make the new laws work -
in the midst of the federal government's war on marijuana where the FBI
estimates 735,000 were arrested last year.

The feds reacted with threats to doctors, arrests of growers, patients
and dispensaries. They put out false information - saying there was no
research supporting medical use - even after a million dollar National
Academy of Sciences research project they commissioned concluded
marijuana had medical value for some patients. Federal drug officials
escalated scares about marijuana's dangers by making exaggerated claims
of harm. In my hometown, Washington, DC, they were successful in
blocking the counting of the ballots on medical marijuana for one year
after the vote occurred. In the end, when a court forced the count we
won by a landslide but the Congress blocked implementation of the will
of the people.

The feds have done everything they can to block the seriously ill from
getting their medicine.

We still hope the federal government will come to its senses - stop
punishing the seriously ill in order to prop up their failed drug war -
allow safe access to medical marijuana so that the will of the people
can become reality. But, today we needed to make a statement - we will
not go away - we will no longer tolerate any more injustice - we will
stand together against their denial of medicine - and in the end, we
will prevail.

* Mr. Zeese serves as President, Common Sense for Drug Policy. This is
mentioned for identification purposes only as Common Sense does not
support illegal activity. He is an attorney who has worked for safe
access for medical marijuana for 24 years.