A unanimous decision by the California Supreme Court means that Californians who smoke the illicit drug marijuana for medical reasons can now do so without fear of prosecution. The decision reasserted the voter-approved law known as Proposition 215 or the Medical Use of Marijuana Initiative, which gives patients the right to possess marijuana if it was prescribed by a doctor for the treatment of disease such as glaucoma, AIDS. The medical use of marijuana has been the subject of much debate for several years. A report published by the Institute of Medicine in 1999, concluded that the drug “would be moderately well suited for particular conditions, such as chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, and AIDS wasting.”
SOURCE/REFERENCE: Reported by www.reutershealth.com on the 19th July 2002
