INSULTING VETO

Governor Quickly Says He Probably Will Reject Task Force's Legislation On
Medicinal Marijuana

PROPOSITION 215, passed in 1996, created a hard conflict between the voters
of California and the U.S. government. Californians authorized patients with
cancer and AIDS to smoke marijuana to ease their nausea and pain. Federal
law outlaws the use of marijuana in any instance.

This is not the first clash between a state and the federal government. This
is not the first time a governor has found himself caught between the
voters' will and a supreme law. A governor's charge, in that event, is to
try to negotiate a solution.

Gov. Gray Davis, in the case of medicinal marijuana, apparently won't be
willing to try. He has simply chosen sides, not tried to bring them closer
together. Instead of negotiating with federal authorities, he's decided to
do their bidding.

That is not only unhelpful. It is insulting to the good work of a task force
that Attorney General Bill Lockyer put together.

It took that 30-member group, chaired by state Sen. John Vasconcellos of San
Jose, a half-dozen meetings, through hours of wrangling, to agree to
legislation on medicinal marijuana. That such diverse members as Santa Clara
County Attorney George Kennedy and Bill Zimmerman, executive director of
Americans for Medical Rights, could come to terms, not to mention create a
good bill, was a striking achievement.

It took Davis less than a day after that bill was passed by the Assembly's
Health Committee to declare through his spokesman that he'd probably veto
it. Not work with, try to amend, or even consider -- but reject it outright.

Perhaps that should come as no surprise, given Davis' original and
longstanding opposition to Prop. 215. Davis, like his predecessors, is
proving selective in enforcement of voter initiatives. But ignoring the
stalemate over Prop. 215 is no answer; it will prolong the conflicts, the
uneven enforcement and the anguish of those denied access to relieve their
discomfort.

Prop. 215 has had a troubled history. Lockyer's predecessor, Dan Lungren,
succeeded in shutting down most of the distribution clubs that formed after
the passage of 215, on the grounds that not all of the users were ill. The
one in Santa Clara County closed after the district attorney's office filed
pot-distribution charges against the club's director.

Vasconcellos's bill would attempt to immunize authorized users and providers
of medicinal marijuana from arrest and prosecution through a voluntary state
registry. Patients with a physician's prescription for marijuana could apply
for an ID card with an 800 number that officials could call for verification.

The Department of Health Services would be charged with writing regulations
on the cultivation and distribution of marijuana. County health departments
would issue the registration cards.

Among the half-dozen states with medicinal marijuana laws, Oregon and
Washington have registration systems. And though the feds don't like the
laws, they have not interfered. Davis missed this point: The federal
government has not prosecuted any cancer or AIDS patient who has used
marijuana under a doctor's recommendation.

Davis said he wants proof that marijuana is effective in relieving symptoms
of cancer and other diseases. In March, a panel for the National Academy of
Science concluded that marijuana can ease pain and nausea and recommended
further study. A companion bill by Vasconcellos would appropriate $1 million
for research.

Davis opposes Prop. 215, because, his spokesman said, it conflicts with
federal law. True, but an appeal to the closing of several cannabis clubs
remains alive in federal court. Advocates are arguing that courts have made
exceptions for medical necessity, including the use of marijuana to treat
glaucoma, when patients had no alternative substances.

Davis has an obligation to voters to try to make Prop. 215 work. Lockyer's
task force has presented him an opening to do that. He'd be irresponsible to
spurn that opportunity.