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U.S.  DRUG CZAR SLAMS MEDICAL MARIJUANA DURING S.F.  EVENT

The nation's top drug cop advocated a "different approach" to narcotics enforcement - and stressed that there is no "war on drugs" - - but had stern words Monday for the San Francisco-bred medical marijuana movement.

Drug users need treatment and education rather than jail terms, according to Gil Kerlikowske, the former Seattle police chief who now heads President Barack Obama's Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Speaking at a gathering of law enforcement officers at the University of San Francisco, Kerlikowske also said that calling cannabis medicine "sends a terrible message" to the nation's teens.  High school students are more likely to smoke marijuana than tobacco due to the growing "perception" that marijuana is less harmful, he said.

"We have to ask if we doing everything we can to empower them to make a healthy decision about their future," he said.

Kerlikowske was in town to highlight the Obama Adminstration's "21st-century" approach toward drug use.  Also in attendance were Mayor Ed Lee, San Francisco police Chief Greg Suhr, and Berkeley chief of police Michael Meehan - who served under Kerlikowske as a narcotics captain on the Seattle police force.

San Francisco has more than 20 licensed and taxpaying medical marijuana dispensaries.  Across California, there are more than 1,000 - - all of which pay state sales tax - according to Americans for Safe Access, a medical marijuana users' advocacy group.

Federal law enforcement officials have long been at odds with state and local policymakers on medical marijuana.  Pressure from the federal Justice Department has shut down seven San Francisco medical marijuana dispensaries since Oct.  2011.

Before taking office, Obama said that marijuana would not be a law enforcement priority for his administration.  Attorney General Eric Holder reiterated that statement, though U.S.  prosecutors have since noted that marijuana remains illegal under federal law and a public health nuisance.

Kerlikowske noted that neither he nor his office have any sway over the Justice Department, and "I wouldn't suppose that I should tell The City what to do differently."

California was the first state to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes in 1996.  Today, eighteen states and the District of Columbia now allow the medical use of marijuana, and adults in two states - Colorado and Washington - can legally possess small amounts of marijuana.

Kerlikowske had stern words for legalization, which is often painted as a solution to the public health and budget woes caused by drug use.  "The Obama Administration strongly believes it is a false choice," he said, and not "ground in science."

"Medicinal marijuana has never been through the FDA process," he added.  "We have the world's most renowned process to decide what is medicine and what should go in peoples' bodies.  And marijuana has never been through that process."

Researchers at the University of California San Francisco and elsewhere have found that cannabis may be effective in relieving "wasting symptoms" caused by cancer and HIV/AIDS, may aid sleep and stimulate appetite, and may be effective in treating chronic pain and other ailments.