EX-PRESIDENTS URGE VOTERS TO REJECT MEDICAL MARIJUANA

WASHINGTON -- In a letter solicited by President Clinton's drug
control chief, former presidents Bush, Carter and Ford said ballot
measures in several states to legalize marijuana for medical purposes
would undercut public confidence in the safety of medicines.

``These initiatives are not based on the best available science,'' the
three former presidents wrote Wednesday in a ``Dear fellow citizens''
letter that closely paralleled the Clinton administration's position
on the matter.

In remarks on Tuesday, Barry McCaffrey, the White House director of
drug control programs, asserted that marijuana initiatives on ballots
in Alaska, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and the District of Columbia
would prejudge clinical research to determine the safety of using
marijuana by AIDS patients.

``Prejudging that research through a political process would be
irresponsible,'' McCaffrey said.

Proponents of the marijuana initiatives said citizens ultimately will
place more stock in findings of medical researchers than in
McCaffrey's stance.

``The public supports compassionate use of medical marijuana. Voters
will heed the advice of doctors, not a general, in a political
position advocating failed national drug policies,'' said Bill
Zimmerman, director of Americans for Medical Rights, a private
advocacy group for using marijuana to treat illnesses from cancer to
AIDS.

In their letter, requested by McCaffrey, the former presidents said
the state ballot measures ``undercut our national commitment to
ensuring that medicines are proven to be safe and effective by the
Food and Drug Administration before being approved for use by the public.''

``Ignoring science does not promote good medicine and is not in our
national interest,'' they wrote.

Under the state measures, marijuana would be made legal only for
persons suffering from one of a short list of specific ailments.
Measures in Alaska, Oregon and Nevada would establish state registries
of patients entitled to use it. In Alaska and Oregon, patients could
get identification cards to avoid arrest.

The laws would require a patient to get a doctor's recommendation that
marijuana would help one or more of a list of illnesses that includes
cancer, AIDS, glaucoma, chronic pain, seizures and muscle spasms.
Advocates hope the initiatives' narrow focus on medical applications
will appeal to voter compassion and evoke images of solace, of pain
eased, of appetite restored and of nausea quieted.

Recent polls in Alaska, Oregon and Washington show most voters support
the measures. Nevada appears to be a close call.

A ballot measure in Arizona would require heroin, LSD, marijuana and
certain other drugs to be authorized by the Food and Drug
Administration before they could be prescribed as medicines. Polls
indicate that measure is trailing.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry