A federal judge ruled on 22 March that evidence of medical marijuana use could be considered by a jury as a defense in a criminal drug trial. The decision by U.S. District Court Judge Nora M. Manella follows a December ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that the medical use of marijuana with a doctor's recommendation may be legal in states that have approved medical marijuana laws.

The case of Anna Barrett and her husband Gary who were charged with manufacturing and conspiring to manufacture marijuana marks the first time that the ruling of the Court of Appeals, which was made in a civil case, was argued before a judge in a criminal trial. Both had doctors' recommendations according to the Californian medical cannabis law of 1996, but federal agents found hundreds of dormant clones of the plants during a raid in May 2000.

Source: Associated Press of 22 March 2004. HempPharm comments: It is amazing how long it took for MM to be recognized in the US. Pharmaceutical companies Park Davis, UpJohn, Eli Lily and others had Cannabis tinctures and other preparations on the market as of the year 1903 onwards. But these facts are 'forgotten.'