VOINOVICH TRIES TO BLOCK D.C. MARIJUANA LAW

WASHINGTON - Sen. George V. Voinovich, the Senate's watchdog for
Washington, D.C., affairs, said yesterday he would try to block a new
Washington city law allowing the medical use of marijuana.

The law, permitting marijuana use as a pain reliever with the oral or
written recommendation of a doctor, was approved by 69 percent of
Washington voters last year, but has not yet taken effect. Voinovich,
chairman of the Governmental Affairs subcommittee on the District of
Columbia, said the "loose wording of the initiative" would amount to "de
facto legalization" and present an enforcement nightmare for police. He
introduced a resolution yesterday to keep it from "going forward."

"In the simplest of terms, illegal drug use is wrong," said Voinovich, an
Ohio Republican, who has an apartment in Washington. "The District
government and the United States government should never condone it,
regardless of the professed purpose."

President Clinton last week vetoed the District's budget as approved by the
Republican-ruled Congress, in part because it overturned the medical
marijuana law and also barred needle exchange programs for drug addicts.

With the spending bill in limbo, Voinovich offered his resolution as an
alternative way of making sure Washington does not move ahead with medical
marijuana, which could be grown or cultivated by up to four caregivers for
use by an ill person, including those suffering from AIDS. Without a
doctor's prescription, marijuana use would continue to be illegal in the
District of Columbia.

As the nation's only federal city, Washington has limited self rule, but is
dependent on Capitol Hill for a large portion of its budget - and is thus
subject to some control by Congress over its policymaking. The Senate and
House can even overturn existing laws, although lawmakers rarely use that
power.

Voinovich, if he carries through with his resolution, would stop the
medical marijuana law in its tracks, despite its approval by more than
two-thirds of those who voted in the District's election last year.
Congress is so opposed to the notion that it succeeded in keeping the
ballots from the initiative sealed for almost a year, until a federal judge
ordered them opened and tallied last month.

Clinton's recent veto of the spending bill - which otherwise would have
killed the D.C. medical marijuana initiative - confused the issue,
Voinovich said, since the president's own National Drug Control Policy
Office opposes such laws.

Voinovich said he agreed with one of Clinton's deputy drug administrators
"that once society accepts that it's all right for individuals to smoke
marijuana for "medical purposes,' we will start on the path towards greater
social acceptance and use of marijuana, which experts agree will lead to
the use of harder drugs."

Six states have similar laws, not subject to congressional oversight or
interference. Ohio does not have a medical law on drug use, but considers
possession of small amounts of pot to be only a minor misdemeanor.