From: [a--n--s] at [fairlaw.org] [mailto:[a--n--s] at [fairlaw.org]]
Sent: Wednesday, October 28, 1998 1:51 AM
To: [a--n--s] at [fairlaw.org]
Subject: Status Report

Status Report: Class Action Class for Freedom of Therapeutic Cannabis

The first step in the judicial proceedings in the Action Class for Freedom
from Government Prohibition of Therapeutic Cannabis took place on October
21, 1998.

In his chambers, the presiding judge, the honorable Marvin Katz, conducted
the initial Pretrial Conference requiring attendance by trial counsel for
the parties, prepared and authorized to discuss all legal issues, trial
matters and settlement.

The brief procedural background of the litigation is as follows:

165 plaintiffs from all over the United States filed a class action seeking
a judicial declaration that the federal drug laws prohibiting marijuana are
scientifically and legally arbitrary, unjustified, and clearly
unconstitutional. The defendant, United States of America filed a motion to
dismiss the class action contending Congress is empowered to legislate
drugs on a federal level and arbitrarily classify and criminalize any
substance anyway that they choose.  In other words Congress is not only
federal lawmaker, but also government physician with respect to cannabis, a
natural, non-toxic plant, which has been accepted and used as a versatile
and effective healing agent globally throughout recorded history. The
government also complained that the Class Action Complaint, as originally
pleaded was too long and created a burden on the government to answer.
Plaintiffs then, asked the court for leave to amend the Complaint making it
briefer in sections, and redrafting and restyling the constitutional
arguments, to ensure clarity and precision in the delineation of the
constitutional issues. Although leave to amend is freely and liberally
granted throughout the entire federal judicial system, the government filed
formal written opposition to plaintiffs’ request for leave to amend.

At the beginning of the conference, Judge Katz inquired concerning the
fundamental argument propounded by plaintiffs that there is no equal
protection of the law for all citizens if only eight sick people are
supplied cannabis by the government and the rest who might be eligible to
receive legal status do not.  After hearing brief position statements from
the parties, Judge Katz raised the possibility of settling the class action
litigation.

Addressing the settlement issue, Judge Katz requested the parties to
consider and respond to a settlement which is founded on the following
principles:

The government would supply marijuana to each medically certified class
action plaintiff as the government now supplies the eight legal recipients.
The surviving eight receive a monthly supply of 300 pre-rolled cannabis
cigarettes, aka joints.  The marijuana which is supplied, has been grown
and exclusively controlled by the federal government on farmland in Oxford,

Mississippi for more than 20 years.

There would be research studies conducted on this group of new recipients.

In consideration, the plaintiffs would agree to settle, discontinue, and
end the instant class action litigation.

At the end of the conference, Judge Katz reiterated the settlement
framework again, requesting responses to the settlement principles from the
appropriate government decision makers, and of course each plaintiff class
representative.

As to pending legal and scheduling issues:

The court denied the governments opposition to plaintiffs’ motion to amend
the complaint.  The court asked the parties to work out the details in a
stipulation which recites that the amended complaint will be filed in 20
days (from 10/21/98) and that the government would again have 60 days to
move, answer or otherwise plead to the Amended Complaint. Plaintiffs’
counsel stated that he would either include in the amended complaint, or
separately and simultaneously file a motion for summary judgment in favor
of the class and against the federal government to complement and
supplement the declaratory judgment and injunctive relief previously
pleaded in the Class Action Civil Complaint.  The stipulation relating to
scheduling will also provide that the government has 60 days to file
opposition to plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment. The court made it
clear that before any judicial decisions were made, the parties would have
an opportunity to place their respective positions and evidence on the
record of this judicial proceeding.

Lead plaintiff Kiyoshi Kuromiya, plaintiff #143 Elise Segal and Joan Bello
in her capacity as paralegal attended and participated at the conference
with trial counsel Larry Hirsch.

Kiyoshi was asked for his observations on the settlement concept and
whether this approach was a breakthrough.  Kiyoshi’s response follows:

“I understood Judge Katz to say that he did not understand why the HHS
terminated the compassionate use program in 1992.  The lawyer for the
government was not able to give any information at all on this and seemed
in the judge's view not to have done her homework.  The DEA official gave
some vague and complicated explanation that the compassionate use program
was to fulfill some obligations that resulted from a lawsuit.  The Judge
first asked if the government would consider settling with the action class
by extending the already existing compassionate use program to these new
applicants - presumably based on their appeal for “equal protection.” The
government lawyer was adamant that that was unacceptable to the government
and would be costly to implement and monitor.  The judge did not appear to
be swayed by the expense argument.  He sent the lawyer back to Washington
to get further information on the compassionate use program and why it was
terminated and why it should not be extended.  He also declined the
government's petition to dismiss the class action suit.  He also instructed
the government lawyer to get more information on current research, the
comparison between FDA-licensed Marinol and smokeable marijuana, and the
possibility of running some research as part of the compassionate use

program.  He then asked the class action to poll its members as to the
acceptability of a settlement that would add them to the compassionate use
protocol.  The sense of the class members in the room was that this might
be acceptable since it would open the door immediately for the individuals
suffering damages here and now and in the future for additional members of
the class to be added to an expanded rather than a downsized compassionate
use program.” [KK]

The breakthrough is the fact that this is the first time that the Judicial
branch has intervened in the equal protection aspect of the termination of
the federally sponsored compassionate use program for cannabis.  There are
members of the class who applied for admission into the program in 1992 but
were declined without just cause.  In one fell swoop, it collapses the
government argument that marijuana has been shown by anyone not to be
effective in the conditions that were part of the compassionate use program
as it existed in 1992.  McCaffrey's statements about the unproven value of
cannabis are put on hold, because compassionate use programs can be
instituted for experimental drugs prior to peer-reviewed research and
licensure - that is the very purpose of such compassionate use programs.
That is why an individual can get an unlicensed drug, for individual use,
shipped from abroad when it is unavailable in this country.”[KK]

Lawrence Elliott Hirsch, Trial Counsel for Plaintiffs
Hirsch & Caplan Public Interest Law Firm
215 496 9530
Fax: 215 496 9532
Email: [a--n--s] at [fairlaw.org]