A Setback For Medipot

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Two years ago, the Institute of Medicine concluded that marijuana has potential therapeutic value. Polls show nearly three-quarters of Americans favor medical-marijuana use, and juries are increasingly reluctant to convict sick people for possession. Oregon, Alaska and Hawaii have set up state registries for medipot users; Colorado, California, Nevada and Maine are debating similar moves. Such grassroots enthusiasm carries little weight with drug warriors, who dispute the scientific data and argue that marijuana leads to hard narcotics. In an interview with TIME last week, Attorney General John Ashcroft praised the Supreme Court decision. "We can't function well as a country if each state makes its own rules about what's available health-care-wise," he argued. "If Congress wants to exempt various people from the laws of this country, it's their duty."

That's unlikely. But neither the Justice Department nor the DEA has said whether the court ruling will cause them to mount a new offensive against medical-marijuana clinics. And as a practical matter, most individual pot infractions fall under state and local jurisdiction, and an increasing number of local law-enforcement officers are refusing to prosecute medipot cases.

Still, Scott Imler, president of the L.A. center and an epileptic who smokes weed to control his seizures, fears the worst. "If they march in here with storm troopers and seize the building, I can't imagine it would be politically popular," he says. "But maybe they don't care."

--With reporting by Elaine Shannon/Washington