Even so, the panel said, there may be cases where patients could in the meantime get relief by smoking marijuana. That's good news for doctors, who sued in San Francisco federal court in 1997 after White House drug adviser Barry McCaffrey threatened to revoke the prescription powers of any physician who recommended marijuana to a patient. His threat came in the heady days after California voters approved medical marijuana in November 1996. In Conant v. McCaffrey , 97-0139, doctors accused the federal government of violating their First Amendment rights. U.S. District Judge Fern Smith issued an injunction two years ago preventing the government from cracking down on California doctors while the case proceeded.
Discovery is now under way.
Graham Boyd, who represents the doctors in Conant , said Wednesday that the conflict comes down to whether the Drug Enforcement Administration has the authority to regulate the practice of medicine within the states. There's also a suggestion . The IOM report undercuts the factual basis for making that claim. Steel, of the Justice Department, said pot backers are reading too much into Wednesday's report. Steel was referring to California's voter-approved medical marijuana law as well as ballot measures that have passed in Alaska, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.