Jury Gives Go-Ahead for AIDS Patient to Use Marijuana

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1993. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Jury Gives Go-Ahead for AIDS Patient to Use Marijuana

Reuters (10/16/93)

San Diego, Calif.--After two hours of deliberation, a jury said that it was okay for a man with AIDS to use marijuana to combat symptoms of the disease. Samuel Skipper, 39, faced five to six years in prison after drug agents seized more that 40 marijuana plants from his La Mesa, Calif., home. The San Diego Superior Court jury agreed with Skipper's defense that the illicit drug relieves the nausea and weight loss associated with his condition, and found him not guilty of felony charges stemming from his cultivation of the plant. This was the first case in which a jury was asked to determine the legality of growing pot for medical purposes, according to defense witness Bob Randall, a leading advocate for the medicinal use of marijuana. Randall, who has glaucoma, is one of only nine people in the United States who are legally permitted to use marijuana for medical reasons. In a 1990 case, a Florida judge ruled against a couple with AIDS who claimed to need the drug for medicinal purposes; however, that conviction was overturned a year later, said Randall. Until 1991, Americans were allowed to get pot with a prescription to relieve symptoms of certain illnesses, but that policy was halted by the Bush administration.

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