Pubdate: Sun, 17 Feb 2002
Source: New York Post (NY)
Copyright: 2002 N.Y.P. Holdings, Inc.
Contact:  http://nypostonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/296
Author: Deroy Murdock

WASHINGTON'S WAR. . . ON THE SICK?

February 17, 2002 -- LAST Monday, the FBI warned that "a planned attack may 
occur in the United States or against U.S. interests on or around Feb. 12," 
thanks to 12 terrorists led by Fawaz Yahya al-Rabeei, a Saudi-born Yemeni. 
Suspecting this, federal officials should have deployed as many dedicated, 
talented agents as possible to protect high-profile targets such as San 
Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman's Wharf or the pyramidal 
Transamerica Tower.

Think again. Washington instead chose Feb. 12 to unleash tough, gun- toting 
Drug Enforcement Agency officers against AIDS and cancer patients. These 
federal agents raided a suspected cannabis cultivation center in suburban 
Petaluma, Calif., and medical marijuana dispensaries in San Francisco and 
Oakland. They arrested four men who led these operations.

This unjust, outrageous and ill-timed misallocation of law-enforcement 
resources epitomizes the Bush administration's new effort to repackage the 
War on Drugs within the War on Terror.

"If you're buying illegal drugs in America, it is likely that money is 
going to end up in the hands of terrorist organizations," President Bush 
declared Feb. 12. His point is not without merit when it comes to cocaine, 
some of whose proceeds reach Colombia's Marxist FARC guerrillas. Likewise, 
the Taliban profited from heroin and opium smuggling.

That said, one has to smoke something pretty strong to conclude that 
someone who uses marijuana to fight life-threatening AIDS wasting syndrome 
somehow is in cahoots with al Qaeda.

The Sixth Street Harm Reduction Center, a facility the DEA crushed Feb. 12, 
served some 200 people enduring AIDS, cancer, Lou Gehrig's disease and 
other serious illnesses. They now must buy their cannabis through illegal 
drug dealers, or simply watch themselves deteriorate and die.

Three of the center's associates face five to 40 years in federal prison. 
Officials say James Halloran, 61, grew more than 1,000 marijuana plants in 
Oakland. That could cost him 10 years to life behind bars.

Compare these staggering potential terms to the actual penalties two men 
received Jan. 31 for unwittingly helping 9/11 hijackers Abdulaziz Alomari 
and Ahmed Alghamdi secure bogus Virginia ID cards: Victor Lopez-Flores got 
27 months in prison while Herbert Villalobos earned a four-month sentence.

The Bay Area clampdown recalls the DEA's Oct. 25 closure of the Los Angeles 
Cannabis Resource Center. It operated with the blessing of West Hollywood 
officials and the L.A. County sheriff, all elected authorities. That was 
not enough to keep 30 DEA agents from spending six hours yanking 400 
marijuana plants from its premises along with computers, documents and the 
medical records of its 960 patients.

Until the Feds intervened, these outfits operated legally. Fifty-six 
percent of California voters approved Proposition 215, a medical marijuana 
measure, in 1996. Initiatives also have legalized medipot in seven other 
states. While the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last May that therapeutic grass 
suppliers cannot assert marijuana's "medical necessity" to avoid federal 
drug laws, it did not address the validity of state statutes permitting 
clinical cannabis.

Federal heavy-handedness has made drug decriminalizers rail against DEA 
chief and former GOP Rep. Asa Hutchinson. As the Drug Policy Alliance's 
Glenn Backes says: "You have an appointed official, a career politician 
from Arkansas, who sits in Washington, D.C. and tells the voters of 
California and the other seven states that have supported medical 
marijuana: 'It doesn't matter what you vote for. I have your tax dollars 
and I'm going to spend them going after sick people.' "

Of course, drug warriors like Hutchinson target healthy pot smokers, too. 
The FBI reports that 734,498 Americans were arrested for marijuana 
violations in 2000. Nearly 88 percent of these individuals - precisely 
646,042 - were arrested for mere possession.

As the U.S. confronts budget deficits and a growing surplus of enemies 
dedicated to America's destruction, Washington must rearrange its 
priorities. Neither cancer patients nor classic rockers who use marijuana 
will murder another 3,000 innocent civilians in cold blood.

Every federal agent who stops pot smokers from lighting up is one less 
agent who can prevent Americans from blowing up.
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