MEDICAL MARIJUANA WIN

* The Issue: A Federal Judge Has Issued An Order Barring The U.S.
Government From Punishing California Doctors For Recommending Marijuana To
Their Patients.

* Our View: The Ruling Could Have Implications For Hawaii, Which Has A New
Medical Marijuana Law.

SUPPORTERS of the use of marijuana for medical purposes won a victory in a
federal court in San Francisco when a district judge issued a permanent
injunction forbidding the U.S. government from punishing California doctors
for recommending marijuana to their patients, as permitted under state law.

The action could have significance for Hawaii in view of the enactment this
year of a medical marijuana law. Seven other states have passed similar
laws.

The Clinton administration had argued that doctors who recommend the drug
should lose their authority to prescribe legal medicines because marijuana
has been found unsafe by Congress and the Food and Drug Administration.

A 1996 California initiative allowed patients to use marijuana, based on a
doctor's recommendation, without risking prosecution under state drug laws.

The Clinton administration's drug policy chief, Barry McCaffrey, announced
after the initiative's passage that any doctors who prescribed or
recommended marijuana would lose their federal licenses to prescribe drugs,
would be excluded from Medicare and could face criminal prosecution.

That prompted a lawsuit by a group of doctors and their patients, who said
the government was violating their freedom of speech. Another federal judge
issued a temporary injunction protecting doctors, which has now been made
permanent by Judge William Alsup.

The plaintiffs' freedom of speech argument prevailed. However, the judge
noted that Congress had not addressed the question of revoking a doctor's
license for recommending marijuana and the drug agencies had not issued
rules regarding doctors' recommendations. This suggests that Alsup might
have ruled otherwise if the law was more specific.

The Justice Department has not announced whether it will appeal. If the
ruling is reviewed by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which has Hawaii
in its jurisdiction, its decision will apply here.

Freedom of speech is an essential principle of democracy and must be
respected. There may be justifiable limits regarding a doctor's advice to
patients, but under this ruling no such limits restrict advice about the use
of marijuana.

However, the federal ban on such use and the conflict it creates with state
laws sanctioning use produce an uncomfortably ambiguous situation for
doctors and their patients -- and problems for law enforcement.