Pubdate: Tue, 30 Jul 2002
Source: Arizona Daily Star (AZ)
Copyright: 2002 Pulitzer Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.azstarnet.com/star/today/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/23
Author: Debra J. Saunders
Note: Debra J. Saunders is a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, 901 
Mission St., San Francisco, CA 94103

WEST CHALLENGES EAST IN DRUG WAR

East does not meet West when it comes to America's drug war. California, 
Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon and Washington have 
legalized medical marijuana. But that doesn't stop federal drug agents from 
raiding West Coast medical marijuana clubs.

Skirmishes are erupting on new fronts. Nevada's November ballot will rachet 
up the fighting with an initiative to legalize possession of up to three 
ounces of marijuana - with or without a prescription.

Then last week, if only to add silliness to the equation, San Francisco 
Supervisor Mark Leno proposed a ballot measure to have The Special City 
grow medical marijuana.

The timing couldn't have been worse for U.S. drug czar John Walters to 
visit the West, but that didn't stop him.

On Thursday, Walters told the San Francisco Chronicle editorial board that 
he wasn't happy that some San Franciscans frame his position on medical 
marijuana as "bigoted" and without justification.

Medical research, he said, simply doesn't support marijuana as medicine. 
Besides, many medical-marijuana advocates are more interested in using 
medicinal pot as a back door to legalize drugs - they don't care about the 
afflicted.

So who are these people to call Walters cold-hearted? And he's right. On 
the pro-medical marijuana side, there are some healthy potheads who 
shamelessly hide behind sick people.

And then there are Democratic anti-drug war partisans who charge that 
Republicans are hypocrites for saying they advocate states' rights - unless 
drugs are involved.

What about a truce - an admission that both sides do care? Most 
medical-marijuana advocates care about cancer patients, who believe 
marijuana reduces their pain and calms their nausea. Walters cares about 
children, who are abused or neglected because their parents' wasted lives 
revolve around drugs, not family.

Walters will never be All That He Can Be until he takes on the needless 
excesses in the war on drugs. He was asked about the Draconian sentences 
that taint the federal criminal justice system. His answer was to go after 
"people who believe we should in some cases change laws."

But while he said he believes the public is uninformed, Walters said he did 
not inform himself about the specifics of the high-profile case of 
Louisiana's Clarence Aaron, a first-time nonviolent drug offender who was 
sentenced to life for hooking up two drug operations.

"I think that the damage that drug trafficking does to people is serious 
enough that I don't have a problem with that sentence. If I knew all 
specifics and I had to be the judge, I might have set something different."

That answer is unacceptable.

In February, Walters said his people were reviewing mandatory minimum 
sentences. Now, months later, he's proposing no changes. Meanwhile, he 
hasn't gotten to the bottom of one of the system's most notorious cases.

And the Bush administration should indulge the states' views for a change. 
Forget about the states' rights hypoc-risy issue. Washington should instead 
ask: Which approach works best?

The answer is: People don't know, and different states have different 
problems. Good Republicans should understand that letting states experiment 
could provide needed answers.

Voters in eight Western states, plus Maine, have told Washington they want 
to do things their way. Washington should listen.
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MAP posted-by: Beth