FIGHT AGAINST CANNABIS WASTES RESOURCES TO BATTLE TERROR

NEW YORK - On Feb. 11, the FBI warned that "a planned attack may occur in
the United States or against U.S. interests on or around Feb. 12," thanks
to 12 terrorists led by Fawaz Yahya al-Rabeei, a Saudi-born Yemeni.
Suspecting this, federal officials should have deployed as many dedicated,
talented agents as possible to protect high-profile targets such as San
Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman's Wharf or the pyramidal
Transamerica Tower.

Think again. Washington instead chose Feb. 12 to unleash tough, gun- toting
Drug Enforcement Agency officers against AIDS and cancer patients. These
federal agents raided a suspected cannabis cultivation center in suburban
Petaluma, Calif., and medical marijuana dispensaries in San Francisco and
Oakland. They arrested four men who led these operations.

This unjust, outrageous and ill-timed misallocation of law enforcement
resources epitomizes the Bush administration's new effort to repackage the
War on Drugs within the War on Terror.

"If you're buying illegal drugs in America, it is likely that money is
going to end up in the hands of terrorist organizations," President Bush
declared Feb. 12. His point is not without merit when it comes to cocaine,
some of whose proceeds reach Colombia's Marxist FARC guerrillas. Likewise,
the Taliban profited from heroin and opium smuggling. Of course, the War on
Drugs relegates these products to the black market, where shady characters
dwell, rather than the sunshine of free trade.

That said, one has to smoke something pretty strong to conclude that
someone who uses marijuana to fight life-threatening AIDS wasting syndrome
somehow is in cahoots with al-Qaida. The Sixth Street Harm Reduction
Center, a facility the DEA crushed Feb. 12, served some 200 people enduring
AIDS, cancer, Lou Gehrig's disease and other serious illnesses. They now
must buy their cannabis through illegal drug dealers, or simply watch
themselves deteriorate and die.

Three of the center's associates face five to 40 years in federal prison.
Officials say James Halloran, 61, grew more than 1,000 marijuana plants in
Oakland. That could cost him 10 years to life behind bars. Compare these
staggering potential terms to the actual penalties two men received Jan. 31
for unwittingly helping Sept. 11 hijackers Abdulaziz Alomari and Ahmed
Alghamdi secure bogus Virginia ID cards. Victor Lopez-Flores got 27 months
in prison while Herbert Villalobos earned a four-month sentence. His
previous 18 weeks in custody earned his immediate release.

The Bay Area clampdown recalls the DEA's Oct. 25 closure of the Los Angeles
Cannabis Resource Center. It operated with the blessing of West Hollywood
officials and the Los Angeles County sheriff, all elected authorities. That
was not enough to keep 30 DEA agents from spending six hours yanking 400
marijuana plants from its premises along with computers, documents and the
medical records of its 960 patients.

Until the federal officials intervened, these outfits operated legally.
Fifty-six percent of California voters approved Proposition 215, a medical
marijuana measure, in 1996. Initiatives also have legalized medipot in
Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Maine, Oregon, Nevada and Washington.

While the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in May that therapeutic grass suppliers
cannot assert marijuana's "medical necessity" to avoid federal drug laws,
it did not address the validity of state statutes permitting clinical
cannabis. Federal heavy-handedness has made drug decriminalizers rail
against DEA chief and former GOP congressman Asa Hutchinson.

As the Drug Policy Alliance's Glenn Backes says: "You have an appointed
official, a career politician from Arkansas, who sits in Washington, D.C.,
and tells the voters of California and the other seven states that have
supported medical marijuana: 'It doesn't matter what you vote for. I have
your tax dollars and I'm going to spend them going after sick people.' "

Of course, drug warriors like Hutchinson target healthy pot smokers, too.
The FBI reports that 734,498 Americans were arrested on marijuana charges
in 2000. Nearly 88 percent of these individuals - precisely 646,042 - were
arrested on charges of mere possession.

As the U.S. confronts budget deficits and a growing surplus of enemies
dedicated to America's destruction, Washington must rearrange its
priorities. Neither cancer patients nor classic rockers who use marijuana
will murder another 3,000 innocent civilians in cold blood.

Every federal agent who stops pot smokers from lighting up is one less
agent who can prevent Americans from blowing up.