Court says no to medical use of marijuana

The Iowa Supreme Court has ruled against a north central Iowa man who said he smoked pot because it relieved him of the side-effects he suffered from a “cocktail” of powerful prescription drugs. Five of the seven the justices on the Iowa Supreme Court say Iowa law does not allow people who are charged with possession of marijuana to argue in court that they used the pot for medical reasons. Sheriff’s deputies found marijuana plants and bags of pot in Lloyd Bonjour’s Floyd County home, and as a defense, he argued the pot was a medical necessity. A University of Iowa professor of internal medicine testified at Bonjour’s trial that Bonjour took a variety of very “toxic” medications because he has AIDS, and smoking marijuana helped him deal with the nausea and other side effects of those drugs. The doctor went so far as to say that marijuana may have been a life-saver for Bonjour. Two justices on the Iowa Supreme Court say the court should have allowed Bonjour to argue that he used the pot out of “medical necessity.” One of the justices said the state “should allow an individual to seek relief from the agonizing symptoms” caused by the prescription drugs he took to prolong his life.