VOTERS SPEAK OUT ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA

"Democracy is the re current suspicion that more than half of the
people are right more than half of the time." - E.B. White

This month, voters in Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon and
Washington approved initiatives letting patients use marijuana with a
doctor's recommendation.

In the District of Columbia, voters also approved a medicinal
marijuana measure, according to exit polls, but Congress blocked the
ballots from being counted.

No medicinal marijuana initiative failed to win a solid
majority.

The new laws are clearer than California's law, passed in 1996.
Several list illnesses, such as cancer, AIDS, glaucoma, chronic pain,
seizures and muscle spasms, for which doctors may recommend marijuana.
Alaska, Oregon and Nevada will set up registries of patients entitled
to use marijuana; Alaska and Oregon patients will get a
get-out-of-going-to-jail identification card.

It was a vote for "pragmatism and common sense in dealing with drugs,"
said Ethan Nadelmann, director of the Lindesmith Center, which
supports drug policy reform. "There was one other message to the
politicians: Stop mucking about with the will of the people."

Politicians are having a hard time getting the message.

The Arizona Legislature put a measure on the ballot to nullify a 1996
initiative authorizing doctors to prescribe marijuana and other
banned drugs. The voters had decided doctors should use their
professional judgment. The legislators added: only if federal
lawmakers and regulators say it's OK.

The legislators' measure explained: "A 'no' vote shall have the effect
of retaining the provisions of state law allowing doctors to prescribe
Schedule I drugs, including heroin, LSD, marijuana and analogs of PCP,
to seriously and terminally ill patients without the authorization
of the Federal Food and Drug Administration or the United States
Congress."

The "no" vote was a resounding 58 percent, reaffirming the 1996
law.

In Colorado, the secretary of state, a conservative Republican,
belatedly disqualified the petition and said the vote doesn't count.
There will be an appeal.

Our nation's capital is the site of the most outrageous attempt to
keep the people from being heard. A right-wing congressman pushed
through an add-on to the District of Columbia's appropriations bill
ordering that not a penny be spent to count the votes on the marijuana
initiative, which already was on the ballot.

Civil liberties groups and the city have filed suit, arguing that
voters have a First Amendment right to be heard.

Counting ballots cast by machine isn't time-consuming or costly, the
city's counsel said last week in a court hearing. A clerk pushes a
button. Estimated cost: $1.64.

In exit polls, nearly 70 percent of D.C. voters said they'd voted
"yes." No doubt donors could come up with $1.64 to find out the
results. But the D.C. government, completely dependent on Congress

for funding, is afraid to push the button.

Before the election, the House of Representatives approved a
resolution "expressing the sense of Congress that marijuana is a
dangerous and addictive drug and should not be legalized for
medicinal use."

If the D.C. votes are recorded, Congress can veto the law. So the only
point of blocking the vote-counting is to make sure the sense of the
people isn't expressed.
As Californians know, a medicinal marijuana law has little effect as
long as state and federal law enforcement officials make it
impossible for sick people to get marijuana. In the Bay Area, local
authorities have tried to keep cannabis dispensaries open, but
without success. Attorney General Dan Lungren is leaving office, but
even if the state finds higher priorities than busting cannabis
clubs, the feds remain eager to force patients to buy from street
dealers or do without.

The new state laws "in no way alter the status of marijuana under
federal law," Barry McCaffrey's drug policy office announced.

But something else was altered. Two days after the election, the Drug
Enforcement Administration announced it will make it easier for
patients to get Marinol, which contains the primary active ingredient
in marijuana. Marinol will move from Schedule II, which includes
useful medications with a high risk of abuse, such as cocaine, to
Schedule III, which includes drugs with little risk of abuse, such as
codeine with aspirin.

It looks like the grass-roots support for medicinal marijuana is
making the DEA nervous.

But while a synthetic drug based on marijuana is labeled low risk and
effective, marijuana remains on Schedule I as a high-risk drug with no
medical use, regulated more stringently than cocaine.

Joanne Jacobs is a member of the San Jose Mercury News editorial
board. Readers may write to her at: 750 Ridder Park Dr., San Jose,
Calif. 95190, or by e-mail to JJacobs@sjmercury.com.

[ ] Put an X here to receive a form through which you may inspect,
modify, or stop this Agent. {marijuana}

Checked-by: Rich O'Grady