High Court to weigh in on medical marijuana issue

The U.S. Supreme Court decided Monday to review whether the club, and perhaps others in states that also have medical marijuana laws, can distribute the drug.

"I'm dying and falling apart a little bit at a time. I want some way to not have such a miserable death," said Frost, whose illness forced him to quit leading horseback wilderness tours.

Frost, who lives in the San Francisco Bay area suburb of San Ramon, has been forced to get his marijuana illegally since August. That's when the court ordered the club to cease operations at the request of the Clinton administration.

The high court is expected to hear the case next year.

Justice Department lawyers said more than two dozen organizations have been distributing marijuana for medical purposes in California, Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington. California first passed a medical marijuana law in 1996. Since then, eight other states have followed.

Medical marijuana laws also have been passed in Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Maine, Oregon, Washington, Nevada and Colorado. They too could be struck down, depending on how broadly the court considers the case, said Nathan Barankin, spokesman for California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, who unsuccessfully lobbied Attorney General Janet Reno to drop the Supreme Court challenge.

Jeff Jones, co-founder of the Oakland pot club, said the cooperative has handed out 4,000 identification cards to members who have obtained a doctor's recommendation to smoke marijuana.

"We have faith when the Supreme Court hears this case that it will consider the needs of the patients who are suffering," Jones said. "We hope that it vindicates Californians who have voted on allowing patients to have compassionate access to this medicine and that it vindicates the citizens in the states that have passed compassionate access laws."

Generally, the state laws allow sick and dying patients with a doctor's recommendation to use marijuana by growing it themselves or obtaining it from a so-called "caregiver." While the laws do not necessarily permit marijuana clubs, states have allowed them if their purpose is for sick and dying patients.

Just last week, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration approved a program allowing San Mateo County to give away government-grown marijuana to 60 AIDS patients as part of a first-of-its-kind study to assess the drug's potential benefits.