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O'Mathúna says there is one other option for those who do not respond to conventional treatment. "Such patients might want to test whether smoking marijuana is useful. Setting up a research protocol to test this could be justified, just as it is done with other drugs for which the benefit is unclear." The Investigational New Drug application could be used in conjunction with a doctor for research purposes.

But such an approach may not satisfy the most avid of medical marijuana users. (One woman said she needed to smoke weed every two hours.) "This program would need to be highly regulated," says O'Mathúna, "and would be very different from the approach taken by the exemptions addressed by the Supreme Court this week."

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Articles elsewhere include:

Doctors are Subject to Federal Pot Laws | The U.S. Supreme Court says the federal government has every right to prosecute those who provide marijuana for "medical" purposes—even if individual states have legalized it. (Focus on the Family)

The medical pot hysteria | With everything else going on in the world, it's good to know that the federal government is being vigilant when it comes to the really dangerous people: those unrepentant chronic-pain patients who viciously insist on using marijuana to relieve their suffering. (Cathy Young, Boston Globe, June 13, 2005)

Should medical marijuana be legal? | Supreme Court ruling leaves decisions for patients (ABC News, June 11, 2005)

Medical Marijuana, a Casual User's Tale | Although I had a hard time believing someone like me might qualify as a medical marijuana patient, there it was in cold print. (Lessley Anderson, The New York Times, June 12, 2005)

Blessing marijuana for mercy's sake | Support for permitting medical use is growing among major religious denominations (Washington Post, June 26, 2004)

In this 1988 Campus Life article, Michael W. Smith admits to using pot after he moved to Nashville.

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June (Web-only) 2005, Vol. 49