MCCAFFREY: POT IS A BURNING ISSUE

Advocates of medical marijuana are clever, White House drug-policy chief
Barry McCaffrey told an Orlando audience Monday, but he predicted efforts
to decriminalize hemp will fail nationally.

"These people are very smart," McCaffrey said of groups that have
campaigned successfully for legalized marijuana use in at least seven
states. "The initiatives are very compelling. Some of it looks like I wrote
it."

Since 1996, voters in Alaska, Arizona, California, Maine, Nevada, Oregon
and Washington have approved use of marijuana as medicine. Hawaii joined
the list this summer with a similar bill signed into law by its governor.

McCaffrey acknowledged that components of marijuana can provide relief to
patients with pain, but said there is no evidence the drug cures anything
or is a preferred method of treatment. He said the medical applications are
a ruse used by pot advocates.

"We don't want it legalized or grown in the woods," said McCaffrey, who
opposes any effort -- including a push to allow industrial production of
hemp -- that might weaken the federal law that prohibits marijuana. "It's
not going to happen, and the chances of getting that [federal law] repealed
is zippo."

McCaffrey spoke before the umbrella group Treatment Accountability for
Safer Communities (TASC), which gave him a leadership award at Orlando's
Radisson Hotel.

The group emphasizes alternatives to prison for drug problems. McCaffrey
urged members to organize and seek funding at the state level. He also
encouraged counselors to continue helping addicted offenders "break the
cycle" of repeat drug use and crime.

"That's a system we're trying to build on," McCaffrey said.

McCaffrey, a retired highly decorated four-star general, is leaving the
drug post in January. Although early reviews of his tenure are mixed, his
office cites a 26 percent decline in marijuana use among ages 12 to 17
since 1998 as proof that its anti-drug media campaigns have worked.

The numbers are exactly the opposite for the 18 to 25 age group, which saw
a 28 percent jump and poses a "worsening problem," he said.

McCaffrey's tough talk on marijuana has earned him harsh criticism from
marijuana advocates.

David Borden, executive director of the Drug Reform Coordination Network,
published an editorial on the Internet last week accusing McCaffrey of
fostering "a destructive drug policy that goes so far as to persecute
medical marijuana patients . . . "