JUDGE PROTECTS 2 MEDICAL POT USERS

SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal judge in San Francisco, following instructions of a U.S.  appeals court, has issued a preliminary injunction shielding two ill women from federal prosecution for using medical marijuana. 

U.S.  District Judge Martin Jenkins issued the injunction protecting Angel Raich of Oakland and Diane Monson of Oroville on Friday. 

The order bars officials of the U.S.  Justice Department and Drug Enforcement Administration from arresting or prosecuting the women for using medical marijuana.  The officials also are forbidden to seize the patients' marijuana or seek civil sanctions against them. 

The preliminary injunction was ordered by the 9th U.S.  Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco in December. 

The circuit court ruling was a rare federal court victory for medical marijuana advocates in the conflict between federal law criminalizing marijuana and a 1996 California voter initiative that allows patients to use marijuana upon a doctor's recommendation. 

Meanwhile, Raich said Tuesday, "I am elated knowing that I am the first medical cannabis patient to be protected by the judicial branch of government."

Raich suffers from an inoperable brain tumor, chronic pain and severe weight loss, and Monson suffers from a degenerative spine disease that results in chronic back pain and muscle spasms. 

But the federal appeals court last year based its ruling in the Raich case on a different legal ground -- the power of Congress to regulate interstate commerce. 

The appeals court said the U.S.  Controlled Substances Act, which is based on the commerce-regulation power, shouldn't apply to the two women because their marijuana growing and use were noncommercial and conducted within California. 

The U.S.  Justice Department has appealed that decision to the U.S.  Supreme Court. 

Both say they need marijuana to alleviate their pain and their symptoms.