By Kim Curtis, Associated Press Writer 

San Francisco, Calif. -- Oregon stopped issuing medical marijuana cards after Monday's Supreme Court ruling, but people could apparently still get pot with a doctor's prescription there and in nine other states, and nobody in law enforcement appeared eager to make headlines arresting ailing patients.

"People shouldn't panic. There aren't going to be many changes," California Attorney General Bill Lockyer said. "Nothing is different today than it was two days ago, in terms of real-world impact."

The high court ruled 6-3 that people who smoke marijuana because their doctors recommend it to ease pain can be prosecuted for violating federal drug laws.

The ruling does not strike down medical marijuana laws in California, Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont or Washington state. In many places over the past years, local authorities have shown no interest in arresting people who smoke pot for medical reasons.

It remains to be seen whether the federal Drug Enforcement Administration is planning a crackdown. The Justice Department was not commenting.

In Colorado, where 668 people hold a certificate allowing them to use and grow marijuana for pain relief under a constitutional amendment voters approved in 2000, federal prosecutors plan to keep their focus on large-scale drug rings, but if investigators come across marijuana in possession of certified state users, they will seize it — just as they have always done, said Jeff Dorschner, a U.S. Attorney's spokesman.

In Oregon, state officials said they would temporarily stop issuing medical marijuana cards to sick people.

"We want to proceed cautiously until we understand the ramifications of this ruling," said Grant Higginson, a public health officer who oversees Oregon's medical marijuana program.

California in 1996 became the first state to allow medical marijuana. On Monday, Gov. Arnold Schwarznegger, who has previously supported the use of pot by sick people, said only: "It is now up to Congress to provide clarity for not only California, but the other states that already have laws recognizing the use of marijuana for medical purposes."

Medical marijuana dispensaries have proliferated despite a 2001 Supreme Court ruling that rejected the "medical necessity" defense in marijuana cases.

Nationally, federal arrests of ailing patients who smoke pot have been rare, said Paul Armentano of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. NORML said the government has arrested more than 60 people in medical marijuana raids since September 2001.

Still, the ruling makes Valerie Corral nervous. Corral operates a 150-plant pot farm in Santa Cruz County, providing marijuana for free to about 165 seriously ill members. The high court's decision "leaves us protecting ourselves from a government that should be protecting us," she said.

It was "business as usual" at the San Francisco health department, spokeswoman Eileen Shields said. The county issues medical marijuana identification cards, valid for two years, to residents with a doctor's prescription.

The city has at least 43 medical cannabis dispensaries, far more than any other city in California, and makes no effort to collect data that federal authorities could use against them. "No one wants to create a nice, neat database" of pot users, she said.

 http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/20/thread20778.shtml

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