U.S. MEDICAL POT RULES MUST BEND

With the Supreme Court apparently poised to rule that federal law strictly
forbids voters, judges and local officials to sanction the medical use of
marijuana, the dilemma of how to respond to citizen initiatives supporting
such use in California and seven other states is now back in the hands of
those who created the problem: Congress and the Food and Drug Administration.

That gives both legislators and the Bush administration a chance to do what
should have been done years ago--move marijuana from Schedule 1, the outlaw
category for dangerous drugs devoid of any possible medicinal value, to at
least Schedule 2, the classification for potentially addictive drugs like
morphine and cocaine that nevertheless have some potential medicinal value.

When Congress ordered the FDA to classify marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug in
the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, its intent was clear. It meant to
put a lid on the pot culture that was then thought to be demoralizing the
nation. Now the agency's blanket prohibition is looking increasingly
arbitrary, political and unscientific.

Marijuana's medical benefits have been described by people ranging from the
1st century Greek physician Dioscorides, who prescribed cannabis to treat
gout, to former President Ronald Reagan's political director, Lynn
Nofziger, who told reporters last week that marijuana was the only drug he
could find to help his daughter control the vomiting and diarrhea she
suffered during cancer treatment. Since 1998, medical authorities including
the editor of the New England Journal of Medicine and the National Academy
of Sciences have documented marijuana's unique ability to relieve both
intractable pain and nausea.

Federal authorities like former anti-drug czar Barry McCaffrey have rightly
pointed out that laws sanctioning marijuana use like California's
Proposition 215, passed in 1996, are worded in carelessly sweeping ways
that could encourage recreational use. The government's continued
insistence on keeping marijuana in Schedule 1, however, will only undermine
the credibility of federal drug laws. By contrast, moving marijuana to
Schedule 2 would allow the FDA to strictly regulate and oversee any medical
use of the drug.

Marijuana is not the harmless drug that some of its supporters imply it is:
People who smoke it ingest more harmful tar than do cigarette smokers, for
instance. But it has significant medical value, unlike tobacco, an
addictive and toxic drug the FDA doesn't even bother to regulate.

The administration--which only last week scolded Health and Human Services
Secretary Tommy G. Thompson for suggesting that the FDA should regulate
tobacco as a drug--is surely not eager to go easy on marijuana.
Nevertheless, with a clear majority of voters supporting some limited
medical uses, the administration will have a hard time dodging the ball the
Supreme Court is likely to throw it.