When asked for his opinion on Monday's 6-3 U.S. Supreme Court decision supporting a nationwide ban on medicinal marijuana, he didn't mince words.

"I think it's a tragedy that a drug that's apparently safe and is effective as an analgesic, a real pain reliever, isn't available to patients who need it," he said from his home in Malibu, Calif. "The law is totally out of touch with reality -- it's inappropriate, and the result of an uninformed bureaucracy."

Lamers stressed that he and all responsible doctors "have to respect the law. It's just too bad it turned out this way," he said.

Monday's decision in Gonzales vs. Raich means federal laws banning the use of medicinal marijuana now supersede any state legislation allowing the plant or its derivatives to be used for pain relief when recommended by a physician. Ten states had passed such legislation: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington. Arizona also enacted similar legislation, but with no formal program to administer pot by prescription.

But supporters of medical marijuana noted the state laws remain in effect, so it's unlikely state officials would prosecute patients who use the drug. And the likelihood of federal enforcement is fairly remote. Allen Hopper, a lawyer with the Drug Law Reform Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, said the federal government handles only about 1 percent of marijuana prosecutions, the Associated Press reported.

Another expert in dealing with terminally ill patients offered up a somewhat more cautious response to the court ruling.

Dr. Perry G. Fine is vice president for medical affairs at the National Hospice & Palliative Care Organization, the nation's largest and oldest hospice organization. Referring to Monday's decision, he said, "This is just such a complicated issue; it has tremendous political overtones and public health overtones."

But Fine, who is also a professor of anesthesiology at the University of Utah's Pain Research Center in Salt Lake City, agreed with Lamers that available research seems to support marijuana's effectiveness as a pain reliever.

"From a purely medical standpoint, there seems to be ample evidence for efficacy in a variety of symptoms that plague patients or cause distress for patients with a variety of chronic, progressive illnesses," he said. "Also, there's increasing scientific evidence that leads us to understand why the active ingredients -- various cannabinoids -- do have therapeutic value."

That statement is at odds with the view of John Walters, director of National Drug Control Policy at the White House. He told the Associated Press Monday that, "to date, science and research have not determined that smoking marijuana is safe or effective."

Some of the nation's largest medical groups agree with Walters, stressing that more data is needed before cannabinoids can be approved as treatment. <Continue to Page Two>