To the Point

Medical Marijuana and States' Rights

As the US Supreme Court met today, it was announced that Chief Justice William Rehnquist will participate from home for the rest of this year while he's being treated for thyroid cancer. The 8 sitting members, who opted not to consider approval of same-sex marriage by the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, then heard arguments in a California case involving the medical use of marijuana. It-s been legalized by voters 11 states as different as California and Montana, but it violates laws passed by Congress and vigorously enforced by Attorney General John Ashcroft. We hear the arguments and implications for state regulation of gay rights, pornography and abortion from drug-prevention advocates, drug-policy reformers and a physician to the plaintiff in today's Supreme Court case. Making News: President Names Replacement for Commerce Secretary Don Evans President Bush has chosen his nominee to replace Donald Evans as Secretary of Commerce. A native of Cuba who came to the US in 1960 as a political refuge, Carlos Gutierrez learned English from a bellhop in a Miami Hotel. Last year, the man who once sold cereal in the streets of Mexico City reportedly made $7 million as CEO of Kellogg. Paul Magnusson is following the story for BusinessWeek magazine. Reporter's Notebook: Michael Scheuer and the CIA When Imperial Hubris was published a few months ago, its author was anonymous and still working at the CIA. Since then, he-s been revealed as Michael Scheuer, who for 3 years headed the CIA-s unit assigned to track Osama bin Laden. We talk to Scheuer, who recently resigned from the agency about turmoil at the CIA under Porter Goss, the resignation of several high-level agents and America-s failures in the war against terror.