MARIJUANA AS MEDICINE

Remedy: There are simpler and fairer ways to deal with this issue.

In asking the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in an Oakland case, U.S.
Solicitor General Seth Waxman said that allowing the use of marijuana for
medical use would "promote disrespect and disregard" for federal drug laws.
He got that right.

Californians, weary of having their ballot initiatives overturned, can
hardly be expected to feel much respect for federal drug policies,
particularly the government`s harsh opposition to Proposition 215. That is
the measure, approved by the state's voters in 1996, allowing the medical
use of marijuana.

Bone-headed enforcement of ill-conceived federal drug laws has caused
tremendous grief nationally. But California and seven other states are
targeted for special problems because they have passed laws allowing the
use of marijuana to treat serious illnesses.

Long Beach's first criminal prosecution related to that issue is about to
go to trial. David Zink, 55, who says he raises marijuana to treat his
severe arthritis, has been charged with felony possession of marijuana for
sale and for manufacturing a controlled substance.

Zink, an outspoken proponent for marijuana as medicine, is not the ideal
poster boy for this issue. If he had stuck to using small amounts of
marijuana for his ailments, he most likely would have gotten into no
trouble at all.

Long Beach prosecutors generally have been mindful of the state-federal
conflict, and so far haven't gone looking for such cases. But Zink had a
yard full of marijuana, plus paraphernalia that could be used for measuring
and distilling the substance. Prosecutors say that is evidence of an
intention to sell the illegal substance.

Zink says in his defense that he and two friends, one with cancer and the
other with post-polio syndrome, share the backyard crop-tending duties, as
well as the fruits of their labor. The distilling equipment was intended
only to isolate THC from marijuana for oral use because, Zink says, he
doesn't like to smoke the weed.

Those facts muddy the issue. A somewhat more straightforward case has gone
to trial in the Lake Tahoe area, where Steve Kubby and his wife Michele
have been indicted on 19 counts of marijuana possession, cultivation, sale
and possession for sale. There is no doubt the Kubbys grew and used
marijuana to treat medical conditions; what they really are accused of is
growing too much of it.

Further confusion about Proposition 215 arises from a decision last week by
the U.S. Supreme Court to issue a temporary stay of an injunction allowing
Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative to distribute medical marijuana.

The stay was merely a routine step that will lead to a ruling by the
Supreme Court on the Oakland case. Unfortunately, the ruling will decide
only whether a medical defense is allowable under federal law for
distribution of marijuana, and not whether the California law is valid.

There is a much simpler and fairer solution to all of this. Congress should
modify its drug laws to allow medical use of marijuana, or at least give
states the option. (And while at it, Congress also should change the
malevolent laws that treat one form of cocaine, powder, differently from
another, crack, with the result that far more African-American users than
whites go to prison.)

But simpler and fairer are not what motivates Congress. In this case it is
fear. Fear of appearing soft on crime. Fear of voters, in other words.

Think about that.