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.''

Checked-by: Richard Lake