The Bush administration wants the Supreme Court's permission to strip prescription licenses from doctors who recommend marijuana to sick patients.

...The new case focuses on physicians and what they tell their patients about pot use within the confines of the doctor-patient relationship. In a brief filed this week with the high court, Solicitor General Theodore Olson said the 9th Circuit's decision in October protects doctors who urge patients to use illegal drugs.

..."An integral component of the practice of medicine is the communication between a doctor and a patient," the 9th Circuit said. "Physicians must be able to speak frankly and openly to patients. ... Being a member of a regulated profession does not, as the government suggests, result in a surrender of First Amendment rights."

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