DEA CHIEF TOUGH ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Hutchinson Will Focus On Enforcing Ban, Improving Informant Accountability

The new head of the Drug Enforcement Administration said yesterday that he
would enforce the federal ban on medical marijuana, wants to improve the
accountability of paid confidential informants and intends to increase
technology used in the war on drugs.

Asa Hutchinson, a former Republican congressman from Arkansas, said he
wants to "send the right signal" on medical marijuana. Federal law
prohibits the sale of marijuana for medicinal purposes. But several states,
including California and Oregon, allow people to grow it, dispense it and
use it without fear of prosecution, which is considered a federal
responsibility under a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision.

"Currently, it's a violation of federal law," Hutchinson told reporters,
who had gathered at DEA headquarters in Arlington for his swearing-in
ceremony. "The question is how you address that from an enforcement standpoint.

"You're not going to tolerate a violation of the law, but at the same time
there are a lot of different relationships . . . a lot of different aspects
that we have to consider as we develop that enforcement policy."

Hutchinson, 50, a former federal prosecutor, takes over a federal agency
with 9,000 employees and a $1.5 billion budget. As a congressman, he was a
conservative who supported local drug courts, which offer alternatives to
prison. He won the support of Republicans and Democrats during his
confirmation hearings last month.

Hutchinson was a House manager during the Senate impeachment trial of
President Bill Clinton and was considered this year as a possible deputy
attorney general. But ties to his alma mater, Bob Jones University, hurt
his chances. The school, which awarded Hutchinson a bachelor's degree in
1972 and an honorary law degree in 1999, prohibited interracial dating
until March 2000.

Hutchinson said that he wants to improve relationships with international
law enforcement agencies to curb drug smuggling, and was encouraged by a
decline in the use of cocaine in the United States. Cocaine use has
decreased 75 percent in the last 15 years, he said.

Hutchinson also said that he wants to implement a stronger "check and
balance" system for the use of confidential informants and other DEA
activities. He cited the case of informant Andrew Chambers as the "perfect
example" of why such a system is needed.

Chambers worked as a paid DEA confidential informant for 16 years. During
that time he wrecked dozens of prosecutions of street-level drug
traffickers by giving false testimony, but he received about $1.8 million
from the government. He was removed from the DEA payroll in early 2000.

The DEA now has a central registry for informants so the agency knows when
the informant is being used by other jurisdictions and where each person
has testified, Hutchinson said.