The Supreme Court decision on medical marijuana may have raised more questions than it answered, says the Christian Science Monitor. One thing is clear: A tiny fraction of the 750,000 pot busts made each year are by federal agents. Ten states allow medical marijuana, and polls show most Americans support medicinal use, including those opposed to legalization of the drug.
The ruling puts added pressure on Congress to deal with the issue. Justice John Paul Stevens “stressed the need for medical marijuana patients to use the democratic process, putting the ball in Congress’s court,” says Rob Kampia of the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C. Calvina Fay of the Drug Free America Foundation in St. Petersburg, Fl., calls the ruling “an important victory for sound drug policy.” She contends that many people falsely claim some medical problem in order to obtain the drug for recreational use. Several medical organizations advocate the use of marijuana for medical purposes. The Bush administration remains adamantly opposed, and it recently launched a new antimarijuana publicity campaign.