THE EXPANDING MEDICINAL MARIJUANA MAJORITY

E.B. White once said, "Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than
half of the people are right more than half of the time."

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.

Checked-by: Don Beck