Medical marijuana activists revive legal challenge

SAN FRANCISCO - A 40-year-old Oakland woman who lost her medical
marijuana case before the U.S. Supreme Court in June asked a lower
federal court Wednesday to revive her request to be able to use
marijuana without threat or fear of prosecution.

Angel Raich, 40, smokes marijuana every few hours to ease pain from a
host of ailments that includes scoliosis, a brain tumor and chronic nausea.

Two years ago, she sued the government, arguing that federal drug
laws making marijuana illegal did not apply in California and nine
other states that have adopted medical marijuana laws. The Supreme
Court, ruling 6-3, concluded that state laws don't make medical
marijuana patients immune from the federal ban on the drug.

In a renewed bid to be able to smoke pot without facing possible
arrest, Raich's lawyers asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
on Wednesday to side with her but advanced a legal theory different
from the one used in the earlier case.

The renewed challenge argues that Raich has the constitutionally
guaranteed right to use marijuana because it is the only medication
that allows her to avoid intolerable pain and death. She claims that
her personal liberty outweighs federal laws outlawing marijuana.

Her doctor has told the Supreme Court that marijuana was the only
drug available keeping Raich alive.

No hearing has been set.

The case is Raich v. Gonzales, 03-1454.