A HEALTH CARE ISSUE

Medicinal Marijuana Is The Wrong Target

For the most part, laws in the United States distinguish between medical
use of drugs and drug trafficking for illicit recreational use and abuse.

But after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the U.S. Department of Justice under
Attorney General John Ashcroft made a priority of raiding individuals in
states that allow medical use of marijuana, including California. Alaska,
Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington also have
medical marijuana laws.

Sick people who use homegrown marijuana with a doctor's permission and
state approval should not be subject to possible arrest, property
forfeiture, fines and imprisonment by federal agents. Going after two
California women - one with an inoperable brain tumor and another with a
degenerative spine disease - is offensive on its face and a waste of
federal resources.

George W. Bush as a candidate in 2000 said the federal government should
respect state decisions on medical marijuana: "I believe each state can
choose that decision as they so choose." That earlier view reflects the
traditional view that states have authority over health issues and should
prevail in a showdown that has reached the U.S. Supreme Court.

Clearly, the federal government has an interest in preventing drug
trafficking. But, just as clearly, states have a traditional interest and
expertise in regulating health care.

California's medical marijuana law involves no risk to the rest of the
country. Marijuana in California cannot be bought, sold or exchanged
in-state or out-of-state. Qualified patients can grow marijuana for
personal medical use only with a doctor's recommendation. They are required
to have special ID cards. Police can arrest anyone who grows too much
marijuana, or tries to sell it.

The Controlled Substances Act passed by Congress in 1970 regulates the
national market, dividing drugs into five categories. Marijuana is
classified along with heroin and LSD in the strictest Class I category,
considered to have "high potential for abuse" and "no currently accepted
medical use." Class II through Class V drugs are considered to have
"currently accepted medical use" and may be dispensed and prescribed for
medical use - though under strict control since they have potential for
abuse. For example, cocaine is classified as a Class II substance, along
with methadone and morphine.

A 1999 Institute of Medicine study concluded marijuana has "potential
therapeutic value," particularly for pain relief, control of nausea and
vomiting and appetite stimulation for patients with cancer, AIDS and other
illnesses. There are health risks associated with smoking, of course. But
for terminally ill patients or those with debilitating symptoms, these
long-term risks, notes the study, "are not of great concern." In the
absence of federal action to reclassify marijuana as having "currently
accepted medical use," states should be allowed flexibility to act.

So long as homegrown marijuana is used only at home for medical purposes
with a doctor's recommendation, and doesn't enter the marketplace, the
state should be left alone to regulate its traditional health care sphere.