MEDICAL MARIJUANA ON 7 U.S. BALLOTS

Patients Say Pot Eases Pain

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, October 30) -- Is marijuana a helpful medicine for
the desperately ill, or a scheme hatched by drug pushers hoping to harvest
a new generation of addicts? Those opposing views will compete at the polls
next week as voters in six states and the District of Columbia consider
limited legalization of marijuana.

Voters in Alaska, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon, Washington state and Washington
D.C. will decide whether physicians, under certain conditions, can
prescribe marijuana as a treatment for patients.

In addition, a ballot measure in Arizona would require heroin, LSD,
marijuana and certain other drugs to be authorized by the federal
government before they could be prescribed as medicines.

He Smokes Pot Legally

While California and Arizona in 1996 passed their own state marijuana
initiatives, they were effectively quashed by federal suits aimed at
keeping marijuana subject to national narcotics laws.

The group Americans for Medical Rights is spending more than $2 million to
turn the tide back in favor of medical marijuana. The California-based
organization argues that patients who smoke marijuana to relieve pain,
control nausea or boost their appetites should not be made into criminals.

Stockbroker Irv Rosenfeld smokes 12 marijuana cigarettes a day and doesn't
consider himself a criminal. One of just eight people in the United States
allowed to smoke marijuana legally, he was grandfathered into a now defunct
federal program providing marijuana for medical purposes.

In Rosenfeld's case, the marijuana eases the pain from a disease that
attacks his joints. "To me, this is the most important aspect to life," he
told CNN.

He's far from alone, according to pro-medical marijuana activists. "There
are hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of patients in the United
States who could benefit from the medical use of marijuana," says Bill
Zimmerman of Americans for Medical Rights.

The group is funded in large part by three multimillionaire
philanthropists, New York financier George Soros, Cleveland insurance
magnate Peter Lewis and Phoenix educator-entrepreneur John Sperling, all of
them opposed to federal government anti-drug policies from both Republican
and Democratic administrations.

'Surrender Our Children To Addiction'

On the other side of the issue are critics who say the medical marijuana
movement promotes drug abuse and criminal behavior by ushering young people
into what one judge has called "the kindergarten of the drug industry".

"Those who would surrender the war on drugs surrender our children to
addiction," says Gilbert Gallegos, president of the Fraternal Order of
Police. The opposition also includes three former presidents who have
joined the White House in urging voters to reject legalized marijuana for
medical use.

"These initiatives are not based on the best available science," wrote
George Bush, Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford this week in a "Dear Fellow
Citizens" letter that closely parallels the Clinton administration's stance.

The letter was requested by Barry McCaffrey, the White House director of
drug control programs, who dismisses the pro-marijuana camp as trying to
weaken America's anti-drug resolve.

"Let's have none of this malarkey on marijuana smoking by cunning groups
working to legalize drugs," McCaffrey said.

Good Medicine?

Americans for Medical Rights insists its purpose is humanitarian and the
ballot measures for medical use are not a stepping stone to legalizing
marijuana. But in the government's view, there is no official proof to back
the contention that marijuana can help ease symptoms of AIDS, cancer,
multiple sclerosis and other serious diseases.

"Smoked marijuana has not been tested (by the government)," says Dr. Don
Vereen, deputy director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

"We must keep an open mind about drugs with medical purposes, (but) before
you vote, ask yourself: 'What other medicines do you smoke?' Smoked
marijuana damages the brain, heart, lungs and immune system."

While McCaffrey insists that "American medicine is the best in the world
for pain management," the claim rings false for pro-medical marijuana
groups in California.

They have fought a long and ultimately unsuccessful battle to implement
Proposition 215, the 1996 state law which allowed seriously ill people to
use marijuana when advised to do so by their doctor.

Under relentless federal assault in the courts, the marijuana supply clubs
that sprang up to provide people with the drug have been forced to close.
The last, in Oakland, shut its doors this month -- leaving its 2,000
"clients" with little option but to turn to street dealers for the drug.

But even if voters support the propositions next week, the fight won't end
there. Should the initiative in Washington D.C. be approved, Congress has
moved to block it from becoming law.

And the Justice Department has given every indication it will oppose
implementation elsewhere.

But for Rosenfeld, the questions of health and pain are far more basic.
"Without this medicine, I would not have near the life that I have now. And
I would have to become a criminal."

Correspondent Pierre Thomas and The Associated Press contributed to
this report.