A WAR NOT WORTH WINNING

The government is wasting time and money cracking down on marijuana
use.

In an opinion issued this week by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth
Circuit, which includes Hawai'i, some marijuana-using Rastafarians may be
protected under a religious-freedom law passed by Congress in 1993.

The case began in 1991 when Benny Guerrero, returning from a trip to
Hawai'i was stopped by officials at Guam's international airport. Guerrero
evidently attracted the eyes of authorities because he was carrying a book
about Rastafarianism and marijuana. A search of Guerrero's luggage turned
up five ounces of marijuana and some cannabis seeds. He was arrested and
charged with importation of a controlled substance.

In his defense, Guerrero argued that he was a practicing Rastafarian and
that his use of marijuana was religious. His importation of the herb was,
he argued, protected under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a law
that blocks the federal government from unjustifiably infringing on a
person's practice of religion.

After litigating the case for more than 10 years, the Ninth Circuit ruled
that while the Religious Freedom Restoration Act might protect some
Rastafarians who possess or smoke marijuana as part of their religious
practices, it does not protect the importation of marijuana, even if that
marijuana was intended for religious use. According to the Ninth Circuit,
while the practice of Rastafarianism sanctions the smoking of marijuana,
nowhere does the religion sanction the importation of marijuana.

As Guerrero's lawyer, Graham Boyd, pointed out in an interview with the San
Francisco Chronicle, the court s ruling was "equivalent to saying wine is a
necessary sacrament for some Christians, but you have to grow your own
grapes. "

The ruling also has much in common with the current situation facing
people, such as AIDS and Crohn's disease patients, who find that marijuana
alleviates some of their pain and provides other medical benefits such as
increasing their appetite. Although eight states now permit citizens to use
marijuana for medicinal purposes with the approval of their doctor, the
federal government has loudly stated its intention to criminally prosecute
anyone who dares to supply a sick person with medical marijuana. Thus,
people whose health is already compromised are forced to shovel dirt and
labor over a cannabis garden, or make friends with a marijuana dealer.

According to the latest Household Survey on Drug Abuse, more than 16
million Americans used an illegal drug in the last 30 days. The
overwhelming majority of these people, just like the overwhelming majority
of people who use legal drugs, did so responsibly and without problems.

Some of those people may find that use of an illegal drug occasioned a
religious experience; others may find that it provided pain relief that
they have been unable to achieve by any other means. To the extent that the
vast majority of these 16 million Americans used an illegal drug without
causing harm to others, our criminal justice system ought to leave them
alone and instead focus on protecting us from dangerous criminals.

Instead, the government has just requested over $19 billion of taxpayer
money to fight yet another year of the "war on drugs" and it s not about to
let religion, medicine -- or basic human rights, for that matter -- stand
in its way.

Lost in the haze of its zero-tolerance policy, and drunk on its hyperbolic
rhetoric about how marijuana leads you through the devil's gateway, the
government continues to flex its weary muscles in an antiquated effort to
save as many souls from damnation as possible.

Enough is enough.