With the Supreme Court apparently poised to rule that federal law strictly forbids voters, judges and local officials to sanction the medical use of marijuana, the dilemma of how to respond to citizen initiatives supporting such use in California and seven other states is now back in the hands of those who created the problem: Congress and the Food and Drug Administration. 

That gives both legislators and the Bush administration a chance to do what should have been done years ago--move marijuana from Schedule 1, the outlaw category for dangerous drugs devoid of any possible medicinal value, to at least Schedule 2, the classification for potentially addictive drugs like morphine and cocaine that nevertheless have some potential medicinal value. 

When Congress ordered the FDA to classify marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug in the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, its intent was clear. It meant to put a lid on the pot culture that was then thought to be demoralizing the nation. Now the agency's blanket prohibition is looking increasingly arbitrary, political and unscientific. 

Marijuana's medical benefits have been described by people ranging from the 1st century Greek physician Dioscorides, who prescribed cannabis to treat gout, to former President Ronald Reagan's political director, Lynn Nofziger, who told reporters last week that marijuana was the only drug he could find to help his daughter control the vomiting and diarrhea she suffered during cancer treatment. Since 1998, medical authorities including the editor of the New England Journal of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences have documented marijuana's unique ability to relieve both intractable pain and nausea. 

Federal authorities like former anti-drug czar Barry McCaffrey have rightly pointed out that laws sanctioning marijuana use like California's Proposition 215, passed in 1996, are worded in carelessly sweeping ways that could encourage recreational use. The government's continued insistence on keeping marijuana in Schedule 1, however, will only undermine the credibility of federal drug laws. By contrast, moving marijuana to Schedule 2 would allow the FDA to strictly regulate and oversee any medical use of the drug. 

Marijuana is not the harmless drug that some of its supporters imply it is: People who smoke it ingest more harmful tar than do cigarette smokers, for instance. But it has significant medical value, unlike tobacco, an addictive and toxic drug the FDA doesn't even bother to regulate. 

The administration--which only last week scolded Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson for suggesting that the FDA should regulate tobacco as a drug--is surely not eager to go easy on marijuana. Nevertheless, with a clear majority of voters supporting some limited medical uses, the administration will have a hard time dodging the ball the Supreme Court is likely to throw it.