PUT WISE CONTROLS ON POT LAW

Gov. Gray Davis has suggested he will veto a bill that lays out details for
implementing Proposition 215, the controversial initiative that voters
passed in 1996 to legalize the medical use of marijuana. Davis spokesman
Michael Bustamante said the governor would be "hard pressed" to sign the
bill, by state Sen. John Vasconcellos (D-Santa Clara), because it would put
California in the position of legalizing a drug that the federal government
bans altogether.

Davis' veto wouldn't settle a thing. California would still be stuck with a
vague law impossible to put into effect. What Davis ought to do is work
with Vasconcellos to tighten the bill's description of legal uses of
marijuana and make it more palatable to moderates including himself. A real
solution will require a change in federal drug laws, but a well-crafted
bill would help state law enforcement officials as they try to decide what
to allow.

Washington's all out ban on the medical use of marijuana is needlessly
stringent. While most experts agree that marijuana can alleviate pain and
nausea in patients suffering from life threatening diseases like AIDS and
cancer, federal law still classifies marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug,
meaning a substance without medicinal value. Drugs arguably more dangerous,
like morphine and cocaine, by contrast may be prescribed as Schedule 2 drugs.

Two revisions to the Vasconcellos measure are key:

* Tighten wording. The bill is almost as irresponsibly open ended as
Proposition 215, legalizing the use of pot not only for AIDS and cancer but
for many lesser conditions. Proposition 215 was sold to voters as a way of
helping people cope with grave illnesses; that's how it should be implemented.

* Limit scope. Most Californians who supported Proposition 215 no doubt
assumed that seriously ill people who smoke marijuana would do so
discreetly. But Vasconcellos' bill wrongly seeks to permit public smoking
of medicinal marijuana just about everywhere cigarettes can be legally smoked.

The debate over Proposition 215 has officials in Sacramento and Washington
in a standoff. Federal drug czar Barry McCaffrey has derided the initiative
as "a Cheech and Chong show" that approves of drug use. Vasconcellos has
snapped back that "the federal government is so hysterical and unresponsive
on this issue that I am not going to let them dictate policy." Davis,
rather than pull out his veto pen, should work with the Legislature. A
carefully monitored, tightly limited implementation of Proposition 215
would be the best first step.