Bill Press is a syndicated columnist and the co-host of CNN's Crossfire, which airs Monday-Friday at 7:30 p.m. ET, and The Spin Room, which airs Monday-Friday at 10:30 p.m. ET.

Bill Press: Supreme court tramples on grass

WASHINGTON (Tribune Media Services) -- There's one tiny bit of good news in this week's unanimous Supreme Court decision against medical marijuana. You can't blame it on George W. Bush. You have to lay blame for this one squarely where it belongs: on Bill Clinton and Barry McCaffrey, his heartless, overzealous drug czar.

McCaffrey's problem is, he probably never smoked pot in college. Had he taken a few tokes, he would know that the garbage he spews about marijuana being a threshold drug, leading users to ruined lives of addiction to cocaine and heroin is simply, well, garbage. There is no evidence that recreational marijuana smokers become serious drug addicts. Two of them -- the current occupant of the Oval Office and the former (who, of course, never inhaled) -- have even become president of the United States.

McCaffrey is so convinced of the evils of cannibis that he would prevent his own ailing mother from puffing on a joint even if it were the only way she could get any relief from terminal cancer. "Smoking a joint is no more effective than downing two glasses of vodka on dealing with pain," he told NBC news. "You're drunk and you're still in pain."

What does he know? Listen instead to Angel McClary, a 35-year-old mother of two from San Francisco who's been taking marijuana to fight the side effects of an inoperable brain tumor and a seizure disorder. "My question to the government is, why haven't they taken us off the battlefield?" she told CNN after the Supreme Court decision. "We're the ones sick. Why are they attacking the weak of our country? There are American citizens who are suffering and dying. If it wasn't for cannibis, I wouldn't be just in a wheelchair, but would also be dead."

It was the uninformed McCaffrey who convinced Clinton to file suit against states that had recognized the valuable and merciful use of marijuana, especially for those in the terminal stages of cancer or AIDS. Voters in eight states -- California, Arizona, Alaska, Colorado, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington -- have done so by initiative. Hawaii became the ninth state by an act of the legislature.

The fact that so many voters in so many states, and such a variety of states -- ranging from the most liberal to the most conservative -- approved medicinal marijuana proves this is no oddball, outlaw conspiracy. Grass is only available, through special clinics or cooperatives, to patients whose doctors say they need it. The conservative California Medical Association has ruled that the use of medical marijuana is consistent with its "core belief that patients should not suffer unnecessarily when other options fail."

But, of course, the strongest testimonial to the therapeutic value of marijuana comes from patients like Angel McClary, suffering from AIDS, cancer, multiple sclerosis and other incurable diseases. They've learned from their own experiences that only grass can ease the side effects of chemotherapy, save nauseated AIDS patients from wasting away or even allow MS patients to get out of their wheelchairs and take a few steps. For them, the Supreme Court's 8-0 decision against medical marijuana amounts to a cruel and unnecessary punishment. It is also another sound denial of states' rights, not surprising from the same court that took over the Florida vote count. But still, as bad as it is, the court's decision is not the end of the road. There are two openings for change.

First, while declaring illegal the distribution of marijuana by medical clinics, the court did not, nor was it asked to, declare the actual use of marijuana by cancer patients illegal. Which means people can still grow their own. Or clinics could convert into greenhouses, where patients tend their own plants.

Second, the court's decision is meaningless unless federal agents swoop into nine states and shut down marijuana clinics. That puts the ball squarely in George Bush's court, who would have to give the Justice Department the green light to act, and may not do so. As Governor of Texas, Bush said that, while he personally opposed the medical use of marijuana: "I believe each state can choose that decision as they so choose." As president, we can only hope he continues to support states' rights.

Bill Clinton started this mad war against medical marijuana. George Bush should end it.