PRO BONO

When Sonny's Widow Revealed His Prescription-Drug Dependence, A Window Was
Opened On A Hidden Epidemic In This Country

SOMEBODY'S drug crazed in this country, but it's not necessarily the users.

Mary Bono's revelation that her husband Sonny died because of his
dependence on prescription drugs underscores the insanity of this country's
"war on drugs." Millions of Americans are hooked on legal drugs such as
Valium and Percodan - two of the pharmaceuticals that may have done in
Sonny Bono - while the government bares its knuckles against dying cancer
patients who try to ease their pain a bit by smoking marijuana.

The immediate cause of Sonny Bono's death was that he skied into a tree
last January at Heavenly Valley. But his widow - who replaced him as the
Republican member of Congress from Palm Springs - believes his judgment was
crippled by the 20 prescription pills he popped every day for a bad back.

This level of medication made him part of a huge, silent epidemic that
neither Gen. Barry McCaffrey nor DARE nor conservative politicians spend
much time bemoaning, let alone fighting. But legal mood drugs and
painkillers are abused more widely in this country than heroin, cocaine or
just about any other illegal drug you can name. Statistics are hard to come
by, but one study this year estimated that 2.8 million American women over
age 59 were addicted to prescription drugs.

Instead of combating this real peril, the federal goverment is filing suit
to stop AIDS sufferers from enjoying a joint, and pouring billions of
dollars into the eradication of coca fields in South America.

Symbolism builds. The "war on drugs" is headed by a real general,
McCaffrey. Two-thirds of the nation's $16 billion drug-war budget is eaten
by military maunuevers and police action, while only a third goes to
education, prevention and treatment. The ratios are the reverse of what
they should be. President Clinton says preventing teenage drug use is his
top priority, but Congress can't even get around to mild measures to reduce
teen smoking.

Loonier is the government's obsession with shutting down marijuana
dispensaries for the crticially ill. Since California voters passed
Proposition 215 in June 1997, the feds have been on jihad to wipe medical
marijuana from the face of the earth. Doctors are under threat of criminal
prosecution if they prescribe it, and narcs have shuttered marijuana clubs.

This is occurring even as voters this month in five more Western states -
Arizona, Alaska, Washington, Oregon and Nevada - joined California in
attempting to legalize medical marijuana. Federal judges are compelled to
follow federal drug statutes when cases are brought to court, but the U.S.
attorney general has discretion in whether to prosecute. She doesn't have
to subsribe to "reefer madness." The real culprit, however, is Congress. In
a show of political cowardice, it refuses to rationally consider changing
inhumane and outmoded laws that deny comfort to sick and suffering
citizens. Dying for a joint? Yes, some of these people literally are.

Sonny Bono was a product of the flower power era. Whether or not he smoked
dope, everyone assumed he was higher than a satellite. Now, according to
his widow, he's killed by perfectly legal drugs. The additional irony is no
one would have known the true nature of his addiction except that Mary Bono
had the courage to speak out.

We hope her colleagues in Congress listen to her - really listen - and then
take steps to reel in the "war on drugs." In its psychoactive appetites,
this nation has been on a bad trip too long. We can either continue to pour
billions into high-tech drug-fighting weaponry and shutting down marijuana
clubs, or else we can face our real problems and search for real solutions.

Checked-by: Richard Lake