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Ruling a blow to believers in healing effects of drug

By Jefferson Strait

    Doug Burlison, chairman of the Greene County Libertarian Party, said Monday that he was disappointed by a U.S. Supreme Court decision against the distribution of marijuana for medical purposes, but it didn't surprise him.

    "I just have a tough time believing that the government needs the authority to slap any kind of medicine out of the mouth of terminal patients," he said.

    On a larger scale, he said the decision was a setback to the party's efforts to legalize the drug.

    "Prior to this a lot of people might have been led to believe that within a period of years we might be able to see the legalization of marijuana," Burlison said. "Now that's questionable."

    Although medicinal marijuana has not been legalized in Missouri, the use of the drug for certain medical conditions can be raised as a defense in Missouri courtrooms, said Dan Viets, a Columbia attorney who serves on the board of directors of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. He said he has successfully used such a defense when a person needed the drug for medical reasons.

    The question remains how the federal ruling will effect state laws, Viets and others said.

    The ruling would affect businesses in other states -- such as the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative in California -- that sell the drug, he said.

    "It's going to make it tougher to get the medical marijuana they need if these buyer's clubs are shut down," Viets said.

    "If someone is dying, I just can't see why the government would want to regulate what they are taking if something is helping them," Burlison said.

    "My gosh, let them extend their lives for a few more years."

    Jme Jackson of Kirkwood, vice president for the Greater St. Louis chapter of NORML, believes the drug can extend the lives of terminally ill patients. He said he knows people who have benefited from the drug, including a St. Louis man who has suffered from AIDS for several years.

    "He says it's better than any medicine they can give him," Jackson said. "He has some bad days, but most days he's doing pretty well."

    Opponents of marijuana's being made available as a medical treatment say there are plenty of legal alternatives, including a synthetic form of the active ingredient in marijuana. They add that they believe the medical marijuana movement's real goal is de facto legalized marijuana for recreational use.

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