What a Shame: A Truly Awful Decision

Published on Wednesday, May 16, 2001 in the San Jose Mercury News

Medical Marijuana
What a Shame: A Truly Awful Decision

by John Vasconcellos

I AM appalled and infuriated by the truly awful decision of the United States Supreme Court effectively limiting the rights of Californians (and all Americans) to obtain and utilize upon advice of their personal physicians, marijuana to assist in prolonging life by making food more palatable, alleviating pain and assisting in their effective treatment.

What a shame! This decision is:

Contrary to science.

Contrary to the will of the people of California and several other states where voters have passed initiatives legalizing the medical use of marijuana.

Contrary to the tenet of personal freedom on which our Constitution is based.

Contrary to the doctrine of states' rights on which our nation was founded.

What a shame! The Supreme Court's decision is especially obnoxious for its blind adherence to the findings of the United States Congress (way back in 1970) with respect to the medicinal efficacy of marijuana. There is a much higher authority whose experience-based knowledge I find far more trustworthy.

Ask the patients whose pain and lives are at stake. Ask the physicians who treat them. Marijuana truly is effective in alleviating pain and providing relief for patients with AIDS, cancer and other lesser ailments.

What a shame! This decision has been meted out by the same five justices (and joined by three others) who otherwise routinely overrule that same Congress with respect to states' rights on matters of much broader import. They have ruled recently, for example, that Congress cannot infringe on states' rights to provide access laws as they see fit for the disabled -- are not these patients' needs every bit as legitimate for states to address? This ruling can only serve to drive patients yearning for relief toward the criminal underworld.

What a shame! Who can fail to note that this is the same court that determined the outcome of the 2000 presidential election? Now the justices extend their political operation to select among congressional acts and hence deny patients (and those doctors and others who would serve their needs) what they need to keep themselves healthy, even alive!

What a shame! I hereby recommit myself to engage in every conceivable action in support of the cause of re-establishing the freedom of individuals and the rights of states to govern our own affairs -- especially with respect to the medical uses of marijuana.

I urge every Californian to register -- in every non-violent way possible -- her/his anger with and dissent from this court and this decision, and join me in a crusade to bring freedom and justice back to the judicial system and back to the people of California and the entire United States.

John Vasconcellos is a Democratic state senator from San Jose.

###