MEDICAL MARIJUANA: DO NOT PROSECUTE

At least as long as President Bush is in charge, the federal
government is unlikely to advance medicine's use of marijuana. Absent
common sense leadership in the White House, Congress should force the
Justice Department to abandon prosecutions of possession for
medically prescribed marijuana in states that allow the compassionate
use of the drug.

Bipartisan sponsors will try to win House approval for a measure to
guarantee no such abusive prosecutions in this state and the others
with medical marijuana laws. Reps. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., and Dana
Rohrabacher, R-Calif., hope to amend a Justice Department spending
bill to forbid use of any money for prosecuting patients using
marijuana in those states.

As authors of a guest op-ed Tuesday noted, some members of the
Washington congressional delegation previously have opposed the
measure. A year ago, Reps. Norm Dicks, Doc Hastings, Rick Larsen,
Dave Reichert, Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Adam Smith rejected this
assurance to people sick enough to receive marijuana prescriptions.
To their credit, Reps. Brian Baird, Jay Inslee and Jim McDermott
opposed the wasteful use of federal funds.

In this state, where a people's initiative has offered compassion for
a decade, the minimum expectation should be for every member of the
congressional delegation to support the measure. While we wait for
more science and less politics on medical marijuana, no patient
should fear prosecution.