FEDS' NEEDLESS POT WAR

Medical experts have long recommended that the government move
marijuana from its current, illogical status as a totally forbidden
drug over to the category for potentially addictive drugs like morphine
and cocaine that nevertheless have some accepted medical use.

A confrontation has been escalating between the state of California and
the federal government since the state legalized medicinal marijuana in
1996. The big artillery came into play Tuesday as the U.S. Supreme
Court issued a temporary injunction barring distribution of marijuana
in the state for any use, even for terminal cancer patients. It is an
impasse that could have been predicted. It could also have been
prevented if the Clinton administration had shown responsible
leadership on the issue.

Medical experts have long recommended that the government move
marijuana from its current, illogical status as a Schedule 1 drug--with
substances like heroin, deemed to have no possible medicinal value--
over to Schedule 2, the category for potentially addictive drugs like
morphine and cocaine that nevertheless have some accepted medical use.
In 1988, after the federal Drug Enforcement Administration held
hearings in response to a petition asking that marijuana be transferred
to Schedule 2, the DEA's own administrative law judge recommended such
a transfer. But top DEA officials declined to do so. More recently, a
report by the federal Institute of Medicine last year concluded that
marijuana is valuable for many patients for whom other medications do
not work.

The Clinton administration is obviously reluctant to be seen as
sanctioning a drug that many Americans associate with the drug-abusing
excesses of the 1960s, including those of the president who "never
inhaled." In fact, moving marijuana to Schedule 2 would help rein in
potential abuses by the ad hoc cannabis buyers' clubs that have formed
in California and the states that joined in passing laws to sanction
medical marijuana--Alaska, Arizona, Hawaii, Maine, Oregon and
Washington.

There is little evidence that the clubs are distributing marijuana to
those without legitimate medical needs, but there is little oversight
now to prevent them from doing so. This laxity was a big factor in The
Times' opposition to the 1996 legalization measure, Proposition 215.
The measure also permits physicians to prescribe marijuana not just for
serious conditions like cancer and AIDS, but for "any . . . illness for
which marijuana provides relief."

Short of moving marijuana off of Schedule 1, the Clinton administration
could at least try toning down needlessly confrontational rhetoric of
the sort seen in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge William Alsup
earlier this month, when Justice Department lawyers argued that
physicians who recommend marijuana as a medical treatment should be
stripped of their licenses to prescribe drugs. California officials are
doing the best they can to responsibly implement Proposition 215. On
Tuesday, the University of California announced that it will open a new
cannabis study center at UC San Diego to develop scientific data to
help counties craft guidelines for the medical use of marijuana.

Now it's Washington's turn. The administration should relax federal
laws to allow physicians to administer marijuana under controlled
circumstances. The alternative, as Proposition 215 showed, is to watch
voters at the state level throw off almost all controls.