Woman with Brain Cancer Loses Marijuana Use Appeal

A woman with a cancerous brain tumor has lost her Court appeal for use of marijuana to alleviate the pain and suffering caused by her disease.

Federal Appellate Judges in San Francisco ruled Wednesday that a terminally ill woman was not immune to federal prosecution for marijuana use. In a separate case, a federal judge dismissed most the charges against a advocate of the medicinal use of marijuana, reported the New York Times.

Angel McClary Raich claims that she used marijuana as recommended by her doctor. She has an inoperable brain tumor, along with other serious ailments. Angle Raich, 41, says that marijuana stimulates her appetite and relieves pain more effectively than prescription drugs.

Ms Raich wept when she heard the court decision. New York Times reported that Ms Raich said said "It's not every day in this country that someone's right to life is taken from them. Today you are looking at someone who really is walking dead."

Ms. Reich and three other plaintiffs sued the government for federal laws outlawing marijuana in 2002. The case made it to the Supreme Court. In 2005 the Supreme Court ruled against Ms. Raich, when the found that theyh Federal government had the authority to prohibit and prosecute possession the use of marijuana for medical purposes. The Supreme Court Justices left elements of the case to a lower court to consider.

On Wednesday, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that while they were sympathetic to Ms. Reich's plights and while they had seen "unconverted evidence" that she needed marijuana to survive, she did not have legal grounds to exempt herself from Federal law, \accorded to New York Times (nytimes.com). quotes from the decision read that, "The court "recognizes the use of marijuana of medical purposes is gaining traction, but that legal recognition has not yet reached the point were a conclusion can be drawn that the right to use medical marijuana is 'fundamental'."