By Ann Woolner, via Bloomberg:
Doctors can prescribe drugs only for “legitimate medical practices,” the law says. And that’s where Ashcroft stepped in.
He and his successor, Alberto Gonzales, say there’s nothing medically legitimate about helping someone die. They say the attorney general can lift prescription-writing licenses of any physician who does so, regardless of state law.
Justice Sandra Day O’Connor clearly disagreed when the case was argued this week.
“Certainly the practice of medicine by physicians is an area traditionally regulated by states, is it not?” she asked U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement.
“It absolutely is,” he acknowledged.
Morphine and Steroids
But he went on to add the feds aren’t looking to take over the regulation of medicine. All they want is to enforce U.S. drug laws.
When Oregon’s lawyer stood to argue, O’Connor asked what would happen if a state were to allow doctors to prescribe morphine for depression or steroids for bodybuilding. “Could the attorney general say that’s drug abuse?”
O’Connor, openly friendly to Oregon’s position in the case, was probably looking for a yes answer to discourage whatever trips onto the slippery slope her colleagues were considering. That isn’t what she got.
“If it was regulated by state law,” the U.S. attorney general could not declare such a prescription to be drug abuse, replied Robert Atkinson, Oregon senior assistant attorney general. This was a play for broader state authority than even friendly justices appeared willing to grant.
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