Local Briefs

Police responded to the store after a robbery alarm was triggered at 2:31 p.m., but the suspect had already fled by the time responding officers arrived, the Police Department reported.

The suspect took an undisclosed amount of jewelry from the sales display and exited the store on the lower level of the mall, the Police Department reported.

The man is described as a bald and black in his 40s weighing about 200 pounds, according to police.

Anyone with more information is urged to contact the Police Department's Investigation Division at (650) 522-7676.

Medical marijuana activists revives legal challenge

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.<