WHITE HOUSE PAPERS OVER GAP WITH GORE ON MARIJUANA

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Wednesday sought to paper over
differences it has with Vice President Al Gore (news - web sites) over the
medical use of marijuana, a day after Gore endorsed the concept at a
candidate forum in New Hampshire.

``I don't think his statements last night really put him at odds in a
fundamental way with what the administration's position is,'' White House
spokesman Joe Lockhart told reporters.

``We support innovative intervention to pain relief, particularly with
terminally ill patients. We don't have yet conclusive scientific evidence
that marijuana provides a therapeutic benefit that exceeds currently
prescribed drugs,'' Lockhart said.

Gore on Tuesday told a WNDS television forum in Derry, New Hampshire --
where he was campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination -- that
patients should be able to use marijuana to relieve suffering upon a
doctor's advice.

``I'm not a medical expert. I do not favor legalizing marijuana ... but I
think that where you have sufficient controls, I think that doctors ought to
have that option,'' Gore said.

``We have not given doctors enough flexibility to help patients who are
going through acute pain,'' Gore said. He recalled that his sister, Nancy
Gore Hunger, was prescribed marijuana by her doctor while she fought a
losing battle against cancer in the 1980s. But he said she concluded it did
not help her.

Gore later told reporters he did not believe scientific research had not yet
established a sufficient basis to justify medical use of marijuana, said his
spokesman, Chris Lehane.

Gore's comments appeared to break from Clinton policies for the second time
in two days. On Monday, he called for an end to the administration's ``don't
ask, don't tell policy'' on gays in the military.

The Clinton administration has opposed all state and local ballot
initiatives to permit medicinal use of marijuana and disputed claims that
the drug had a medical value.

``Smoked marijuana will never be medicine,'' the head of the White House
anti-drug effort, Barry McCaffrey, said on Wednesday in response to a
reporter's question about Gore's statement,

However, he said, research was continuing into the possible medical benefits
of components of marijuana. ``This deserves to be a scientific medical
issue, not a political issue,'' he said.

Nevertheless, Clinton in September vetoed a federal funding bill for
Washington, D.C., partly on the grounds that it unfairly barred the city
from legalizing medical marijuana after a local referendum overwhelmingly
approved such a step.

Twenty-eight states have laws on their books allowing some form of medical
use of marijuana, which is prohibited under federal law.

Gore's Democratic opponent, former Senator Bill Bradley (news -- web sites),
said at a separate WNDS forum on November 29 that the issue of medical
marijuana needed to be studied further, but that he did not support medical
uses of it now.

Both Gore and Bradley have acknowledged trying marijuana in the past, for
recreational purposes.

Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush (news - web sites) said in
October the issue of medical marijuana use should be left for states to
decide, but he personally opposed the practice.