The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals handed down an unfortunate decision today, finding that there is no “fundamental right” to lifesaving drugs.

To make matters worse, the court cited Raich, which said the federal government can deny medical marijuana to sick people who need it, to affirm its position. Thus, thanks to the extra-constitutional drug war, and the absurd lengths the courts have gone to find some constitutional justification for it, the bureaucrats at the FDA can now deny terminally sick people the medication that could save their lives. And not even because it isn’t safe, but because it hasn’t been proven effective, at least according to standards set by the FDA.

This isn’t surprising. It’s a predictable application of drug war philosophy. If the government can stop you from putting drugs in your body that make you high, it’s a short leap to say that the government can let you die while waiting for drugs that could save your life, albeit still in the name of “protecting” you.

But that doesn’t make it any less appalling. If the Ninth Amendment doesn’t include the right for a person with a deadly disease to put potentially life saving medication into his body, then it means nothing at all. And I guess that’s where we are. It means nothing at all.

I can’t imagine what it must feel like to be dying, or to watch a loved one die, while the FDA hems and haws over whether it’s going to let you live or not. I hope I never have to.

As one Hit & Run commenter pointed out, the federal government says there’s no right to lifesaving drugs if you’re terminally ill, no right to euthanasia to end your suffering, and no right to opiate therapy or medical marijuana to treat your pain.

Because recognizing a right to treat your own pain would undermine the government’s power to stop people from getting high. Because recognizing recognizing a right to end your own life would undermine the government’s power to decide who gets to live, and who gets to die. And because recognizing a right to lifesaving drugs would undermine the government’s power to regulate commerce between drug sellers and drug buyers.

Contract a terminal illness, and the only right you really retain is the right to a slow, painful, death.

Ah, the fruits of seven years of “compassionate conservatism.”

MORE: Some good discussion of the case in the comments section of the Volokh Conspiracy.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 7th, 2007 at 4:19 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.