THE FEDS VS. THE STATES

No sooner had Americans in some western states voted to permit the medical
use of marijuana than federal officials announced a crackdown on doctors
who prescribe it.

No sooner had Oregon voted to permit physician-assisted suicide than the
U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill to severely punish doctors in
Oregon - 20 years in prison - or anywhere else who prescribe drugs to
hasten death. The federal intervention has so rankled Oregonians, from the
governor on down, that a U.S. senator who in fact opposes his state's Death
with Dignity Act has promised a filibuster. And "states' rights," court
challenges, and civil disobedience among doctors are all the latest chat.
The battle for this law was fought out locally, and even the losers resent
the federal intrusion and won't put up with it.

Oregon was among the first states to approve marijuana's use for medical
purposes and to decriminalize it. It legalized abortion before the Roe vs.
Wade decision. It was first to have an election entirely by mail. And it
has among the most rigorous growth-management rules in the nation.

Congress, led by Republicans whose party used to be for states' rights,
along with the Dixiecrats, haven't figured out that the same drugs that
kill also relieve pain. What are doctors supposed to make of that?

Yet, led by Henry Hyde, obsessive in his zeal to set moral standards for
the other guy, the House voted 271-156 for this ill-conceived legislation.
A comparable Senate bill with 31 sponsors should never reach the floor.

The American Medical Association should sue members of Congress who vote
for it for practicing medicine without a license.

And Americans, who in a CNN/USA Today poll last March went 61-35 in favor
of an assisted suicide option for those with incurable ailments and severe
pain, should vote them out.

Remember that this Congress, which wants to tell our doctors how to treat
us, are the lot that can't get Medicare and Social Security on track, can't
talk straight about surpluses and national debt, or set limits on campaign
finances. There is in this Congress a moral dissonance that stinks.

It is time for Congress to get out of people's personal lives. It is time
for it to fairly assess its failed programs for cost-effectiveness and make
appropriate changes. It is time for it to do something significant. Most of
all, it is time for it to stop inserting itself so crudely between doctor
and patient.