MEDICAL MARIJUANA USE ADVOCATES STAGE PROTEST AT BARR'S OFFICE

Supporters of medical marijuana usage blocked the door to Georgia Rep. Bob
Barr' s office Thursday to protest his efforts to overturn a District of
Columbia referendum that would permit seriously ill people to use marijuana
legally if their doctors recommend it.

Capitol police arrested Jim Miller of Silverton, N.J., after he lifted his
wife, Cheryl Miller, from a wheelchair and placed her on a sleeping bag in
the doorway to Barr' s office. He was charged with demonstrating within a
Capitol building, a misdemeanor. Two other admitted medical marijuana
users, Jacki Rickert of Mondovi, Wis., and Gary Storck of Madison, Wis.,
joined Mrs. Miller on either side of the door. Another half dozen
protesters entered Barr' s office and began chanting, " Stop arresting
patients, " and " Bob Barr you' ve gone too far."

Police then broke up the demonstration, arresting Miller and allowing the
others to leave the Longworth office building.

Mrs. Miller, 52, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1971, said
she eats marijuana in salads to relieve her pain and spasticity. Police
called medical personnel from the Capitol' s attending physician' s office
to place her back in the wheelchair before she was taken out of the
building by supporters.

Mrs. Miller said she risked arrest by participating in the civil
disobedience because " I' m already in prison in my body. It' s
deteriorating and I can' t do anything. At least the marijuana relieves my
pain."

Barr was targeted by the protesters because he got an amendment included in
the District of Columbia spending bill for next year that would block
implementation of the medical marijuana referendum, which 69 percent of the
District' s voters approved last year.

President Clinton vetoed the bill in part because of Barr' s amendment. He
said that provision and another would have prevented District residents
from "making their own decisions about local matters."

Barr, a Republican from Marietta, was not in his office during the protest.
He said in a statement later that " it is truly sad to see marijuana
legalization activists using seriously ill patients as props in their
campaigns to make dangerous, mind-altering drugs legally available."