Angel Raich flicks a butane lighter at the bowl of a small glass pipe, inhales deeply, then, in deference to a guest, blows the pungent smoke out the window of the sitting room in her three-story Oakland home. "Without cannabis, I would not survive," she says.
The room is pale blue and filled with ceramic angels. Beside the lavender couch on which Raich sits, a table holds 11 small glass jars of medical-quality marijuana--strains that growers have named Juicy Fruit and Haze. Alas, her favorite, Romulen, "which is really strong," is all used up.
Raich, 39 years old, 5 feet, 4 inches tall, just 100 pounds, with skin the color and translucence of skim milk, is smoking with her physician's blessing. According to the doctor, she suffers from a staggering array of ailments, including chronic severe pain (from scoliosis, temporomandibular joint dysfunction and endometriosis), nausea, life-threatening weight loss, seizures, fibromyalgia and an inoperable brain tumor. "I hurt--every second of every day," she says. "I wouldn't wish my body on my worst enemy." The lighter flares again.
Marijuana doesn't get Raich high--it hasn't in a long time--and it doesn't kill her pain, but it blunts it, loosens her muscles and joints and gives her some appetite. She goes through some 9 pounds of the drug a year. She smokes or vaporizes about every two hours, and eats marijuana-laced food. She also massages herself with cannabis oils and balms. In her words, she is "medicating," in accordance with California's Proposition 215, which passed in 1996 and allows marijuana use if recommended by a doctor. According to federal law, however, she's committing a crime. The U.S. government doesn't recognize any legitimate use of marijuana, so it remains a Schedule I drug, along with heroin and Ecstasy.
This clash of laws, for eight years the cause of much friction between California and federal authorities, will now be resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court--because Raich forced the issue.
In October 2002, Raich, two growers who supply her with marijuana free of charge, and Diane Monson, another medical cannabis patient, filed suit against U.S. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft and Asa Hutchinson, then head of the Drug Enforcement Administration. They asked for a court injunction to stop federal government arrests and prosecutions of those who grow, possess or use marijuana for medical reasons. They lost in District Court, but the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the decision in December 2003, ruling that states could adopt medical marijuana laws if the drug wasn't sold, transported across state lines or used for nonmedicinal purposes. The federal government then filed its appeal, and the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. Oral arguments are scheduled for Nov. 29.
