No one knows exactly how many old folks use cannabis to address their ills, but activists and physicians say they probably number in the thousands. And unlike medical marijuana's younger and more militant true believers, the elderly are difficult for doubters to castigate as stoners. Their pains are unassailable. Their needs for relief are real. Most never touched pot before.

Now the drug is a blessing. Read the whole article, it does an excellent job of blending human stories with facts and figures.

There's something fundamentally wrong with a government that would deny pain relief to the elderly. Ashcroft is gone. Now the Supreme Court needs to rule that his policies are thrown out with him.

A complete guide to Raich v. Ashcroft is available at Drug War Rant. All of TalkLeft's coverage of the case is accessible here. In a nutshell, from the San Francisco Chronicle,

The question before the court is whether individual patients -- and, possibly, some of their suppliers -- are immune from federal enforcement. The argument goes like this: The Constitution authorizes Congress to regulate interstate commerce. But no interstate commerce is involved when patients, acting legally under state law, use marijuana that was grown within the state and supplied without charge.