MEDICINAL MARIJUANA GAINS SUPPORT

WASHINGTON - It's one thing for California, with its cannabis clubs and
pungent green fields of Humboldt County hemp, to legalize marijuana as
medicine.

It's another in the nation's capital. The Republican-controlled Congress
so hated the idea that it sneaked a provision into the fiscal 1999
budget bill to kill the District of Columbia's medical marijuana
initiative, creating a local uproar that has only fueled public support
for the measure.

The White House is worried as well, and not just about the effort in its
back yard. Bankrolled by big-money donors like New York financier George
Soros, such initiatives are gaining momentum from Washington to Maine
and will be on the ballot in six states and the District on Tuesday.

If these proposals succeed, it would bring to eight the number of states
that have cast a vote for the controlled medical use of marijuana. And
it may signal a subtle shift in public debate away from the punitive war
on drugs that emphasized criminality to legislating a more tolerant
attitude toward drug use.

''The ultimate goal is to change federal policy,'' said David Fratello,
spokesman for Americans for Medical Rights, a Los Angeles-based
organization funded by Soros, Phoenix businessman John Sperling, and
Peter Lewis, a Cleveland insurance executive.

State, federal battles

After their successful voter drive in California in 1996 - now stymied
by an ongoing battle between state and federal officials over
distribution - the organization went national, identifying states with
high levels of popular support for medical marijuana.

Washington, Oregon, Nevada, and Alaska all have medical marijuana ballot
initiatives on Tuesday. Arizona's initiative, which is not funded by
Americans for Medical Rights, would reinstate marijuana provisions
passed in 1996 and overturned by the state Legislature. Colorado's
referendum is being challenged in court. And in the District, votes will
be cast but may not be officially counted until courts decide whether
Congress can legally tamper with the election.

In the next round of elections, Illinois, Ohio, Maine, and Florida are
likely to launch initiatives, according to the National Organization for
the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

The apparent appeal of these measures has prompted a last-minute attempt
by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy to dampen
public support. This week, former presidents George Bush, Jimmy Carter,
and Gerald Ford issued a ''Dear citizen'' letter at the request of drug
czar Barry McCaffrey in which they oppose the ballot measures because
they say the measures would undercut public confidence in the authority
of the Food and Drug Administration.

The drug office also dispatched deputy director Dr. Donald R. Vereen Jr.
to states with the ballot measure.

Vereen will make the case that there is no scientific basis for
prescribing marijuana for people with AIDS, cancer, glaucoma, and other
illnesses to help stimulate appetite and control nausea and pain. He
will also stress it is unsafe and irresponsible to allow patients to
take a drug that has not been tested and approved by the FDA.

Voting for medical marijuana sets a ''dangerous precedent,'' Vereen
warned at a rally against the initiative in the District last week.

McCaffrey and other antidrug activists also believe the ballot measures
are simply the first move by ''legalization forces'' toward the ultimate
goal: making it legal to buy and smoke pot.

Patients' access

Americans for Medical Rights rejects that claim and says its initiatives
are narrowly focused on helping people with AIDS or cancer patients on
chemotherapy.

''We're not about promoting marijuana but patients' access,'' insisted
Wayne Turner, of ACT UP, the group sponsoring the District initiative.

Medical opinion is divided on the health effects of marijuana, but the
medical community has been mostly quiet on the issue.

''The only group that has really come out against us is law enforcement,
turning this into a battle of patients' rights versus law and order,''
noted Geoff Sugarman, director of the initiative in Oregon.

But in the District, where there is a high concentration of both AIDS
and drug abuse, the issue of whether to make marijuana available
medically goes beyond patients' rights.

''I represent a ward where open-air drug markets are thriving and where
there is open warfare between drug dealers,'' said Sharon Ambrose, a
city councilwoman. ''I'm not willing to do anything that sends the
message that we are relaxing our war on drugs, even though that is not
what the initiative is about.''

This story ran on page A03 of the Boston Globe on 10/30/98.

Checked-by: Rolf Ernst