In a unanimous decision, the 9th Circuit Federal Court of Appeals ruled that doctors have the right to openly recommend or approve to marijuana as treatment to their patients.  Patients are likewise free to receive this information.  The decision upheld a lower court’s injunction prohibiting the Federal Government from threatening physicians with losing their licenses to prescribe medications should the doctor recommend, or even discuss, medical marijuana use with their patients.  “The 9th Circuit rebuffed the Federal Government’s attempt to gag physicians from speaking with their patients about something that our Drug Czar and Attorney General don’t like - medical marijuana” says Daniel N. Abrahamson, Director of Legal Affairs at the Drug Policy Alliance.  “The Court went on to debunk the Justice Department’s claims that marijuana has no medical usefulness - citing a large body of medical research to the contrary.”

The Court went out of its way to note the abundance of medical research supporting the medicinal qualities of marijuana.  Judge Kozinski cites extensive data from the White House Office of National Drug Control commissioned study put out by the National Institute of Medicine of the national Academy of Sciences (1999) which concluded that “scientific data indicate the potential therapeutic value of cannabinoid drugs, primarily THC, for pain relief, control of nausea and vomiting, and appetite stimulation”, thereby validating the benefits of marijuana in a medical setting.  This decision gives the green light to physicians across the country to discuss the potential advantages of marijuana for symptom alleviation, and recommend its use where appropriate.  Patients residing in any of the eight states that has legalized medical marijuana use can use their physicians’ recommendations for medical marijuana to shield themselves from state prosecution.  The eight states are California, Alaska, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Colorado, Maine and Hawaii.

Read the decision of the 9th Circuit Federal Court of Appeals.