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Supreme Court Says No to Medical Marijuana

Aired May 14, 2001 - 11:01   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: The Supreme Court has dealt a major blow to the supporters of the use of marijuana as medicine. CNN's senior Washington correspondent Charles Bierbauer is outside the Supreme Court. And he's got more on that for us now -- Charles.

CHARLES BIERBAUER, CNN SR. WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Leon, what Supreme Court ruled and ruled unanimously today is that there is no acceptable medical necessity for distributing marijuana even to people who claim it helps them with diseases such as cancer or AIDS or glaucoma. What happened here is that a California statute following a referendum came in through a direct clash with the Controlled Substances Act, a federal regulation which places marijuana in the most controlled category of substances.

And the court ruled that there cannot be this medical exception. The only exception that the court will tolerate is that which is already written into the statute, which would be for government approved and funded research. And that was not the case with the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative, a group set up after the California statute was passed in 1996 to distribute marijuana.

That is out. And it is out pretty much anywhere else with such coops and distribution groups may have been set up to make sure that people who had presumably some benefit could use marijuana. They cannot, according to this ruling here today, Leon.

HARRIS: Charles Bierbauer outside the Supreme Court in Washington, thank you.

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