Proposition 215, passed by California voters six years ago, legalized marijuana for medical use by people who are seriously ill. But the federal government responded with raids, arrests, and injunctions, closing marijuana clubs that supplied the drug.

When Angel Raich takes her marijuana dose, she usually uses a vaporizer to avoid the dangers of smoking.

I was in a wheelchair from '96 to '99.

She turned to marijuana, she says, because most prescription medications for pain made her sick.

Cannabis is responsible for getting me out of my wheelchair and giving my life back to me so that I can be a mom for my kids. It's kind of sped up my healing process.

She got her first supplies of marijuana from her local medical marijuana club, the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative.

By mid '99, I was walking again. That's miraculous.

But in a case that went all the way to the United States Supreme Court, the federal government put the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative out of business, threatening Angel's marijuana supply.

Take away Angel's medicine, Angel could die.

So the Raichs have now gone to federal court, seeking an injunction against the DEA and Attorney General John Ashcroft. They want a court order protecting Angel and the unnamed growers who supply her marijuana.

When I was partially paralyzed and in that wheelchair, that was hell. And there is no way that I'm going to allow this federal government to send me back to hell. There's no way.

But the stories of marijuana miracles from patients like Angel don't convince drug czar John Walters.

Because people say something makes them feel better doesn't make it medicine. That's the definition of snake oil.

What's lacking in the medical marijuana movement, says Walters, is proof.

I wish it was medicine. I would love to take this off the table and have the broadest consensus possible. The reason we can't take it off the table is not moralistic block headedness. The reason we can't take it off the table is the science doesn't justify that.

Drug czar John Walters says people are being conned into believing marijuana is harmless.

Why do we have a control on marijuana? Because it is a dangerous, addictive substance that causes great harm in this country, especially to young people today.

It has always been true, though— what is poison to some is medicine to others.

I am a mother. I am not a criminal. I do not deserve to be behind bars. None of us do.

Usually, medical treatments emerge from scientific studies and clinical trials. Marijuana's future, though, is being decided by court cases and politics.