Pubdate: Tue, 27 Oct 1998
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL) - Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services
Copyright: 1998 Chicago Tribune Company
Contact:  http://www.chicagotribune.com/
Author: Naftali Bendavid (KRT)

MEDICAL MARIJUANA INITIATIVES MAY BE FIRST PROPOSALS FOR RELAXING DRUG LAWS

WASHINGTON -- Renee Emry walked into the office of Rep. Bill McCollum
last month and did something rarely seen in a congressional suite: She
lit up a marijuana cigarette.

Emry, 38, suffers from multiple sclerosis, and she wanted to urge
McCollum, R-Fla., to support the legalization of marijuana as medicine
for patients like herself.

``I find that when I medicate appropriately, it calms my nerves, so I
fired up a fatty,''said Emry, who came here from Ann Arbor, Mich., on
behalf of a group called the Marijuana Policy Project. ``It's not like
I was trying to be rude, crude and totally uncalled for. I was there
to educate the man.''

Whisked away by Capitol police, Emry faces trial on a drug charge in
December.

Not so easily ushered away is the issue itself. Medical marijuana
initiatives may be the first proposals for relaxing the drug laws that
have gained significant support since the war on drugs began in
earnest in the early 1980s.

Voters in California and Arizona approved medical marijuana
initiatives two years ago. Five more Western states, plus the District
of Columbia, will vote on similar proposals next Tuesday, and polls
released by supporters this week suggest they will win handily.

While those polls may be suspect, the public does face a real prospect
of waking up after election day to find that medical marijuana is
legal, at least in theory, in seven states that cover about one-fifth
of the population.

Police, prosecutors and federal officials are beside themselves with
frustration. The initiatives' popularity suggests that many people are
rejecting the message that marijuana is a dangerous ``gateway'' to
stronger drugs, and see marijuana instead as potentially
therapeutic.

``This is a way to legally introduce people to possibly a lifetime of
drug abuse,'' said John Justice, a South Carolina prosecutor who heads
the National District Attorneys Association. ``The drug problem from
stem to stern in this country is tremendous, and I knew a judge who
used to call marijuana `the kindergarten of the drug
industry.'''

The proposals' supporters hope they are establishing a beachhead, and
that eventually marijuana will be legally available from doctors nationwide.

The initiatives' popularity raises the question of how, after years of
anti-drug ads and horror stories, so many people still view marijuana
as a benign force.

If some or all of the initiatives pass next week in Washington,
Oregon, Nevada, Colorado, Alaska and the District of Columbia,
political leaders and police will have to deal with the fact that the
new state laws will be at odds with federal law on the subject.

``Legally there is little significance if these things pass, but
politically there is a lot of significance,'' said Eric Sterling,
president of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation. ``Members of
Congress might start to re-evaluate their position.''

It is not entirely an accident that medical marijuana is catching on
now. A group called Americans for Medical Rights, headquartered in
Santa Monica, Calif., is pushing the crusade with small staffs in
several states.

AMR is bankrolled by three millionaires: financier George Soros,
insurance magnate Peter Lewis and John Sperling, who owns a successful
chain of adult education centers. The three have spent a total of just
over $2 million on the cause.

The campaign is airing commercials that stress the theme of
compassion. An Oregon television spot, for example, shows an avuncular
doctor bemoaning his inability to help patients suffering with
chemotherapy. ``Please, let us treat you with every medicine that can
help,'' Dr. Rick Bayer begs viewers.

Public officials and anti-drug activists are furious at this campaign.
But there is little organized opposition or advertising on the other
side, and that is one reason supporters are confident of victory.

Rep. McCollum, who pushed through a congressional resolution against
medical marijuana, claimed the drug can actually hurt patients by
weakening their immune systems. It is misleading for the initiatives
to suggest that marijuana would be available at the corner drugstore,
McCollum added, when in fact it would remain illegal to sell it even
if the initiatives pass.

``It is always phrased as though the doctor is going to provide a
prescription,'' McCollum said. ``In reality, there is no prescription.
The doctor gives you a chit and you can go down the street and buy it
from anyone.''

Opponents see a sinister agenda, the legalization of all drugs, hiding
behind the mask of compassion.

``They are taking the case to the voters in the most obnoxious and
irresponsible way, crafting television commercials that appeal to
compassion for the terminally ill,'' said Sue Rusche, executive
director of the anti-drug group National Families in Action. ``Who
doesn't have compassion for the terminally ill?''

Behind the social question -- is this just a way for old hippies to
push through drug legalization? -- is a medical one: Does marijuana
really have therapeutic value?

Doctors are somewhat divided. Supporters of medical marijuana say it
fights the nausea caused by chemotherapy and by AIDS treatments,
allowing some patients to keep their strength at a crucial level.
Marijuana is also said to relax the cramped and spasmodic muscles that
torment some multiple sclerosis patients.

But opponents say the evidence is far from conclusive. The Food and
Drug Administration has not approved marijuana as safe and effective,
and the Drug Enforcement Administration lists it as a ``Schedule I''
drug, meaning it has no medicinal value.

Barry McCaffrey, the nation's drug czar, held a news conference
Tuesday to drive home that point and to blast the state proposals.

``We need to leave medicine to the scientists and doctors of
America,'' McCaffrey said. ``American medicine is the best in the
world, and it's not based on this kind of malarkey.''

That, however, is not the view of Stormy Ray, a multiple sclerosis
patient in Oregon. She began smoking marijuana in 1991, she said, when
her regular medicines stopped working.

``I was absolutely amazed,'' said Ray, a grandmother who said she had
opposed drugs. ``It was like somebody finally found the right way to
turn my body back on. It took away the nerve pain. I could not imagine
anything being able to do that.''

If the initiatives do pass, that could be just the beginning of a
tangled legal battle. The sale and possession of marijuana still would
violate federal law, which takes precedence over state law.

In California, which passed a medical marijuana measure in 1996, legal
confusion prevails. Federal authorities say they will crack down on
doctors who recommended marijuana to their patients, but a court has
put a temporary hold on that crackdown, and the final outcome is in
doubt.
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Checked-by: Patrick Henry