BUSH'S NEW DRUG POLICY CHIEF TAKES HARD LINE

President Bush's drug czar nominee once told Congress that it should
yank all prescription privileges from doctors who recommend medical
marijuana for their patients. Last Monday's Supreme Court ruling
barring doctors from prescribing medical marijuana would give him
authority to act on his convictions. We can only hope that John P.
Walters has become less extreme since he voiced his hard-line views
to Congress in 1996, when he was a mere Republican drug policy
consultant.

Bush's decision to appoint Walters to the nation's top anti-drug post
is baffling, given the presidents clear understanding that the
nation's drug problem can best be solved by reducing demand at home,
not by eradicating supply from abroad.

In recent years Walters has railed more loudly than anyone in
Washington against drug treatment programs. He has called them "the
latest manifestation of the liberals' commitment to a `therapeutic
state' in which the government serves as the agent of personal
rehabilitation." As a deputy to drug czars William J. Bennett and Bob
Martinez from 1989 to 1993, Walters became known for his
preoccupation with drug seizures, military aid and other national
security dimensions of drug policy.

Perhaps now that he will be in charge of a $19 billion budget,
Walters will moderate his convictions.

California physicians who recommend medical marijuana to nauseated,
emaciated cancer patients should not have to fear that federal agents
will bust down their doors.