OAKLAND WOMAN SUES ANEW OVER MEDICAL MARIJUANA RIGHTS

OAKLAND - An Oakland woman whose landmark medical marijuana case was
rebuffed five months ago by the U.S. Supreme Court renewed her legal
fight Wednesday by filing papers in a federal appeals court.

Lawyers for Angel Raich, 40, filed a brief in the federal Ninth
Circuit Court of Appeals arguing that federal efforts to restrict
medical marijuana violate her rights to take the only medication that
allows her to avoid intolerable pain and death.

The brief thus marks a new legal strategy for Raich, who previously
had argued that federal drug laws traditionally focus on interstate
commerce and thus did not apply to Raich's use of locally grown marijuana.

That argument was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court in a 6-3 ruling
in June. The latest legal salvo by Raich also argues that prohibiting
her from taking medically necessary cannabis would violate her due
process rights, and that the federal Controlled Substances Act does
not allow the federal government to prohibit medical use within a
state that authorizes it.

California is one of 10 states with laws allowing the use of medical
marijuana. Raich suffers from an inoperable brain tumor and a
"wasting syndrome" that makes it extremely difficult for her to hold
down her food. After trying 35 different pharmaceutical treatments,
Raich said, she found that marijuana is the only drug she can
tolerate that holds her seizures and other symptoms in check.

"This case implicates perhaps the most fundamental right of all, the
right to preserve one's life," said Robert Raich, the plaintiff's
husband, who also is a member of her legal team.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Francisco, Luke
Macaulay, declined comment Wednesday on Raich's latest legal effort.

Raich's latest appeal will be heard by the same three-judge panel
that upheld her right to use medical marijuana in 2003. That decision
was reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court in June.

Angel Raich, the mother of two, said she is hopeful the Ninth Circuit
panel will again rule in her favor.

"I just want the opportunity to be a mother to my children without
having to live in constant fear that the federal government will raid
my home or throw me in jail," she said.