WHICH SIDE IS WINNING WAR ON DRUGS?

The war on drugs is going badly.

The current and previous presidents of the United States used marijuana. So
has presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has admitted to drug use. Radio host
Rush Limbaugh, who once beat the drums for jailing white junkies, has been
through drug treatment.

Some 75,000 Californians now use marijuana under a doctor's care. The U.S.
Supreme Court let stand a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling barring
Uncle Sam from punishing doctors who prescribe medical marijuana under
state law.

The same 9th Circuit Court in California has allowed defendants to
introduce evidence that they were growing marijuana for medical purposes.
San Francisco is considering creating nonprofit marijuana cooperatives.

Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich, a Republican, signed legislation slashing
the punishment for medical use of marijuana. Connecticut is moving to
legalize medical pot.

A state court recently affirmed the constitutional right of Alaskans to
grow marijuana at home. Alaskans will vote this year on an initiative to
legalize personal pot use.

The Netherlands allows personal possession and cannabis coffee shops. Spain
no longer arrests recreational users; Portugal and Luxembourg have
decriminalized marijuana consumption.

Belgium permits the medical use of marijuana and is considering allowing
citizens to grow small amounts of pot. Local authorities in France and
Germany decide whether to arrest cannabis users.

In Britain, most pot users are now warned rather than arrested. A police
chief has called for legalizing heroin. The British Department of Health is
nearing final approval of a marijuana inhaler for medical purposes.

Australia, New Zealand, and Switzerland all are debating relaxing their
marijuana laws. Canada provides marijuana through its health-care program,
plans to make pot available in pharmacies and has proposed to decriminalize
pot consumption.

Why toss pot smokers in jail while tolerating use of alcohol and
cigarettes? People should abstain from all of them, but they should not be
imprisoned if they do not.

Some of Limbaugh's conservative defenders argued that an addiction arising
from an illness deserved special dispensation. If so, people using
marijuana as medicine also warrant compassionate treatment.

For instance, Angel McClary Raich of Oakland smokes marijuana to combat
nausea resulting from her treatment for brain cancer.

"The alternatives have been ineffective or result in intolerable side
effects," says her physician, Dr. Frank Lucido.

Teddy Hiteman of Henderson, Nev., suffers from multiple sclerosis.

"Medicinal pot has been a godsend," she says.

Michael Ferrucci of Livermore has lung and testicular cancer. Marijuana
"has been far more beneficial to me than other medications they have
recommended to me," he says.

The American Medical Association Council on Scientific Affairs has reported
that "anecdotal, survey, and clinical data" demonstrate marijuana's medical
usefulness. The National Institutes of Health stated that "Marijuana looks
promising enough to recommend that there be new controlled studies done."

Groups ranging from the American Cancer Society to Kaiser Permanente
support access to or research on medical marijuana.

In one survey, more than 70 percent of American cancer specialists said
they would prescribe marijuana if it was legal. A poll of the British
Medical Association yielded similar results.

The New England Journal of Medicine has backed access to medical marijuana.
Last year, the British medical magazine Lancet Neurology pointed out that
marijuana had proved effective against pain in lab tests and could become
"the aspirin of the 21st century." A recent issue of The Harvard Brain
journal reported: "Cannabis may also slow down the neurodegenerative
processes that ultimately lead to chronic disability in multiple sclerosis
and probably other diseases."

Allowing the medical use of marijuana doesn't even prevent the government
from punishing recreational users. The General Accounting Office concluded
"that medical marijuana laws have had little impact on their law
enforcement activities."

Candidate George W. Bush said, "I believe each state can choose" what to do
about medical marijuana. But under President Bush, reports Dean Murphy of
The New York Times: "Federal agents have raided farms where medicinal
marijuana is grown, closed cooperatives where it is distributed and
threatened to punish doctors who discussed it with their patients."

Sadly, drug warriors are more interested in punishing drug users who
threaten no one than in aiding the sick and dying.

The drug war has failed. The drug laws pose a far greater threat to public
health and safety than does drug abuse. Drug use should be treated as a
medical and moral issue, not a criminal one.