WARRING ON THE WAR ON DRUGS

IT'S more than likely that come June, the U.S. Supreme Court will uphold
federal attempts to shut down OCBC, the Oakland Cannabis Buyers'
Cooperative, and similar groups distributing marijuana. Medical use of
the drug was legalized by Proposition 215, the initiative that
California voters approved in 1996.

But however the court rules, voter-enacted medical marijuana laws in
Arizona, Maine, Colorado, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California and
Nevada -- plus one passed last year by the Hawaii Legislature -- will
remain on the books. One of every five Americans now lives in a place
where state law allows the medical use of pot.

More important, the broader campaign to reform the nation's drug laws --
a campaign that's rolled up one victory after another in the states --
is almost certain to go on. And because the reformers feel they've made
their point with medical marijuana initiatives, the focus is likely to
shift to broader and more controversial issues.

Late last month, as the high court was hearing arguments in the OCBC
case, Bill Zimmerman, who's been running the campaign, was looking at
Florida, Ohio and Michigan as possible new opportunities in the drive to
reform laws covering possession of all illicit drugs.

The states have been the battleground, but federal drug policy is the
real target. The state initiative process merely gives the reformers
their leverage. And on this issue the voters, at least in the West, have
been far more restive with the nation's drug policies than the
politicians they send to Congress.

In the past five years, with funding from billionaire financier George
Soros and a few other deep pockets, the resulting gap has given
Zimmerman 14 victories in 15 attempts, making him one of the most
successful political operatives in this country.

Among those victories: the overwhelming vote last November for
Proposition 36, the California initiative designed to sentence those
convicted on simple drug possession charges to treatment instead of
prison; the medical marijuana laws; reform of asset forfeiture laws in
Utah and Oregon; laws legalizing needle exchanges or legalizing the sale
of needles in pharmacies.

So far, Washington has been slow to respond. Although the drug reformers
handily won most of their campaigns, the federal government has resisted
vigorously. In fall 1998, as a medical marijuana initiative was heading
for a vote in the District of Columbia, Congress voted to prohibit the
District from even counting the vote. Ten months later, when a federal
court overturned that prohibition, the count showed that the measure had
passed 69 percent to 31 percent. Despite such votes, Attorney General
John Ashcroft vows to step up the drug war.

The Oakland case arose from the federal government's attempt to shut the
club down. Given the likelihood that juries would acquit AIDS or
glaucoma or cancer patients smoking marijuana to control nausea or other
symptoms, the government's most logical strategy was to stop
distribution.

Yet as Zimmerman points out, even if the high court lets the government
shut down OCBC, it may not discourage the medical use of marijuana so
much as it fosters other efforts, as in Oregon, to have the state
certify users and create a decentralized supply system that makes any
federal crackdown nearly impossible. Under Oregon law, anyone may grow
up to seven marijuana plants for a state-certified user. Nevada, where
voters last November approved a medical marijuana initiative with a 65
percent majority, is now setting up a similar system. Other states may
follow.

In the meantime, California is rushing to implement Proposition 36,
which goes into effect July 1. That means vastly expanding treatment
facilities, finding the people to run them and making certain, through
testing and other means, that users successfully complete their
treatment. But in some counties there's still a lot of arm wrestling
between probation and health authorities over who gets the lion's share
of the $120 million a year that Proposition 36 provides for the addicts
sentenced to treatment.

A recent poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press
shows that 74 percent of Americans believe that the drug war is a losing
cause. And while most are not ready to decriminalize drugs, a large
majority support policies allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana for
their patients. And in states such as California, sizable majorities are
ready to send most hard drug addicts to treatment rather than prison.

But those attitudes could easily change if the reform laws don't work in
the states where they've been enacted. Here again, California is likely
to become the bellwether state. The reformers think it can be done, but
the big tests still lie ahead.