MARIJUANA BILL DRAWS OPPOSITION FROM WASHINGTON

Officials Say 215 Runs Counter To Federal Policy

SACRAMENTO - A California bill that would create a registration system to
regulate the use of marijuana as medicine would not pre-empt federal laws
prohibiting the drug, White House officials said Tuesday.

"This is not a commentary or critique on the bill," said Tom Umberg, deputy
director for the Office of National Drug Control Policy and a former
Democratic Assemblyman from Orange county. "The bill is mostly a work in
progress and we're simply stating what federal policy is."

The bill by Sen. John Vasconcellos, D-Santa Clara, proposes a registry to
protect legitimate medical marijuana users and growers from prosecution.
Patients with a doctor's recommendation that they use marijuana to control
pain, nausea or other conditions would be added to the registry and get an
identification card showing law enforcement that their marijuana possession
was legal.

Vasconcellos called the federal government's position "a continued federal
assault on the wishes of California voters who enacted Proposition 215," the
1996 initiative that attempted to legalize medical marijuana use.

"The Clinton Administration does not get it," Vasconcellos said in a
statement. "They are not the final word on medicinal marijuana use in our
state."

In addition to asserting that marijuana is illegal under federal law, Umberg
said that Vasconcellos bill ignores the findings of a federal study that
said that marijuana smoke is carcinogenic.

The report by the National Academy of Sciences concluded that further
research should go into methods whereby people could ingest the drug
instead, Umberg said.

Vasconcellos agreed with the government study but said "compassion dictates
we allow access (to marijuana) while research continues."

Meanwhile, some medical marijuana advocates accused the Office of National
Drug Control Policy of ignoring the people's will.

"General McCaffrey has presided over America's worst public policy failure
since the war in Vietnam," said Bill Zimmerman, executive director of
American's for Medical Rights.