CLASH OVER POT RESEARCH GETS PERSONAL

Vasconcellos' Long-Ago Self-Esteem Panel Is Derided By DEA Lawyer.

ARLINGTON, Va. - The Bush administration is using hardball and ridicule
this week as it fights efforts to expand medical marijuana research.

Former California legislator John Vasconcellos caught the ridicule, with
derisive inquiries into his past work on self-esteem. Others faced
hardball, with questions about their pot smoking. It's all part of a
high-stakes fight as a reluctant Drug Enforcement Administration
reconsiders a researcher's application to grow high-quality pot.

"We're the only people in America who can't get 10 grams of marijuana,"
research advocate Rick Doblin testified Wednesday.

The DEA's administrative law courtroom is far from the limelight, and only
about one-quarter of the spectator seats were taken Wednesday afternoon.
Still, the hearing that's likely to last several more weeks is the most
important legal proceeding on the issue since the Supreme Court ruled in
June that federal authorities can pursue medical marijuana users in California.

That 6-3 ruling in Gonzales v. Raich did not overturn the medical marijuana
provisions approved in California and other states, but it did expose users
to potential federal prosecution.

It's still unclear how aggressively U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
may pursue medical marijuana users. There's no question, though, that the
administration disputes marijuana's potential worth as a medicine. That's
what makes the new hearing so crucial, and it may also help explain some of
the courtroom tactics.

After years of delay, the DEA's administrative law judge is being asked to
help overturn the agency's rejection of a marijuana researcher's
application first filed in 2001. University of Massachusetts plant
physiologist Lyle Craker had sought approval to grow 25 pounds.

"We (look) at marijuana as we would do any other medicinal plant," Craker
testified.

Craker said the limited marijuana now grown under federal supervision at a
12-acre University of Mississippi site is weak and filled with stems and
seeds. Craker, the editor of the Journal of Herbs, Spices and Medicinal
Plants, said his more potent pot would help test new vaporizers as a
healthier means for patients to ingest the smoke.

The American Civil Liberties Union is supporting Craker's effort, as are
several law firms working on a pro bono basis.

"We're not doing marijuana research because we can't seem to get
marijuana," said Doblin, head of the nonprofit Multidisciplinary
Association for Psychedelic Studies, "so we're spending money on litigation."

Drug enforcement officials reply that the University of Mississippi's
inventory already contains some 1,500 kilograms of marijuana. Officials say
that stash, combined with rolling machines that can crank out 1,000
marijuana cigarettes every minute, can more than meet existing research
needs for a drug the government considers dangerous.

"Marijuana," the DEA said in court filings, "has no currently accepted
medical use in treatment in the United States."

The government's existing marijuana stocks supplied scientists, for
instance, at the University of California Medical Cannabis Research Center.
While in the state Senate, Vasconcellos drafted the bill creating the
research center.

That's why Vasconcellos was called to testify on Craker's behalf this week,
but that's not what DEA attorney Imelda Paredes wanted to ask him about.

Instead, in an apparent effort to undercut the former Democratic
legislator's credibility, Paredes pressed Vasconcellos on the California
self-esteem task force that finished its work 15 years ago.

"Haven't research studies shown that in academic terms, self-esteem
curricula are worse than useless?" Paredes asked.

Paredes also noted Vasconcellos' place in a conservative author's book
titled "One Hundred People Who Are Screwing Up America."

Vasconcellos' testimony ended shortly after he defended the self-esteem
programs.

On Wednesday, DEA attorney Brian Bayley took a different tack with Doblin,
by pressing him repeatedly about his own marijuana use. Over his lawyer's
objections, Doblin acknowledged he had begun smoking marijuana in the early
1970s and still smokes it recreationally about once a week.

Bayley then asked him who he bought his pot from; at that point, the judge
said the DEA had gone far enough.

The hearing will continue through Friday and then resume next month. The
administrative law judge will make a recommendation but cannot order the
DEA to grant the application.