MEDICAL POT A POLITICAL PLOY, BUSH DRUG CZAR SAYS

PORTLAND -- Drug czar John Walters said Thursday that medical marijuana is
being used as a political ploy to support efforts to legalize marijuana in
a state where it already poses the most serious drug abuse problem for
teenagers.

Walters said about 25 percent of teens in the metro area who report drug
abuse problems say they are dependent on marijuana, compared with 15
percent who report alcohol abuse.

Their parents are part of a Baby Boom generation that considers marijuana a
"soft" drug that poses only a minor problem compared to "hard" drugs such
as heroin, cocaine or methamphetamine, he said.

But marijuana remains the single biggest abuse problem in the nation,
especially for teens and young adults, Walters said.

"The greatest enemy in this area is cynicism," Walters said.

The director of National Drug Control Policy, a job that has acquired the
nickname "drug czar," was visiting Portland on a tour of the 25 largest
U.S. cities to promote state and local drug enforcement and abuse
prevention efforts.

Walters said most of the abuse problems are concentrated in those 25
cities, so the Bush administration is trying to focus funding on local
efforts to deal with those problems, including treatment and rehabilitation
programs.

But he had harsh words for medical marijuana advocates in Oregon, accusing
them of playing into the hands of legalization advocates seeking to
decriminalize all marijuana use.

"What's really going on is that sick and dying people are being used as a
political prop to legalize marijuana," Walters said.

But a spokesman for the Stormy Ray Foundation, the backers of the Oregon
medical marijuana law, said the law is aimed only at helping a tiny number
of people who are suffering from serious disease and do not respond well
with conventional treatment.

"The effort to legalize marijuana for medical purposes in the state of
Oregon has not involved pursuit of wholesale legalization," said foundation
spokesman Duane Raley. "I would say that John Walters is uninformed, or
he's promoting his own message, contrary to the facts."

Oregon is one of nine states -- including Washington and California -- that
allow limited use of marijuana for medical purposes under the direction of
a doctor.

Raley noted that Oregon law differs from California by restricting
marijuana cultivation to the patients who use it. The state Department of
Human Services simply processes applications and monitors marijuana
prescriptions by doctors.

"The state is not placed in the position of being a provider of medical
marijuana to the patient, and we think that's a good thing," Raley said.

The foundation said there were 4,473 patients registered for treatment in
Oregon as of May, with 747 applications pending.

Walters said the Bush administration is spending millions of dollars on
research to find out if any ingredients in marijuana have some medical
benefit and can be turned into prescription drugs.

He noted that many prescription drugs are based on the ingredients in
heroin, cocaine and other illegal drugs, but drugs derived from those
substances are controlled by doctors and have shown true medical benefits
after decades of research and clinical experience.

"It's not about feeling better, it's about what is ethical and efficacious
medical practice," Walters said. "Smoking marijuana has not met that standard."

The Bush administration has asked the Supreme Court to decide whether the
government can strip a doctor's license to prescribe drugs if medical
marijuana is prescribed. The administration has appealed a 9th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals ruling that blocked the federal government from punishing
doctors who prescribe medical marijuana.

Walters was joined by some of the top law enforcement leaders in the city,
including U.S. Attorney Michael Mosman, police Chief Mark Kroeker and
Multnomah County Sheriff Bernie Giusto.