HIGH ON A LIE

Funded by billionaires, the "medical marijuana" movement is blowing
smoke in our eyes.

One Saturday last September, 50,000 people, most of them teen-agers,
crowded into the Boston Common for the eighth annual Freedom Rally.
Its organizers billed it as the largest marijuana-legalization event
on the East Coast. Strolling through the crowd, holding a joint, was a
17-year-old high-school senior who said his name was Bill. "If they
allow sick people to use it," he said, "it can't be that damaging."

Sharing a marijuana pipe with two friends, a 15-year-old named Nicole
agreed. "Pot is harmless," she said. "It should be legalized because
there are so many medical benefits. It helps you with a lot of things.
It's the best."

An increasing number of young Americans agree. They have gotten this
idea from a well-funded movement to legalize the "compassionate" use
of marijuana. While every legitimate drug requires rigorous testing by
the FDA before being approved, marijuana advocates are opting for
medicine by popular vote. This year signatures are being gathered for
medical-marijuana initiatives in a half-dozen states and the District
of Columbia.

Marijuana's main active ingredient, THC, is effective in relieving
nausea and inducing weight gain in cancer and AIDS patients. That is
why the FDA has approved Marinol, a synthetic pill form of THC. But
marijuana in its smoked form has never been shown in controlled
scientific studies to be safe or effective. In fact, marijuana smoke
contains over 2000 chemicals, many of which produce psychoactive
reactions, cause lung damage and--in cancer and AIDS
patients--increase the risk of pneumonia and weaken the immune system.
Inhaling the smoke also disrupts short-term memory and leads to
changes in the brain similar to those caused by heroin, cocaine and
other highly addictive drugs.

"There is no conclusive scientific evidence that marijuana is superior
to currently available medicines," says Dr. Eric Voth, chairman of the
International Drug Strategy Institute in Omaha. "Medical marijuana is
a scam that takes advantage of sick and dying patients."

Says Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey (Ret.), director of the Office of
National Drug Control Policy, "Medical marijuana is a stalking-horse
for legalization. This is not about compassion. This is about
legalizing dangerous drugs."

"Daddy Warbucks" of Drugs.

The legalization of marijuana and other drugs has been debated for
more than 30 years, with a vast majority of Americans standing in
opposition. Legalization supporters have used the argument that drugs
are necessary for medical reasons. But now, for the first time, they
have significant financial backing.

In the last six years a handful of America's wealthiest people have
contributed $20 million to groups that promote medical marijuana or
other radical drug-policy reforms. Billionaire financier George Soros
is the biggest giver, donating more than $16 million. Others include
Peter Lewis, CEO of Cleveland-based Progressive Corp., the nation's
sixth-largest auto insurer, and John Sperling, president of the
Apollo Group, a holding company that controls for-profit universities
and job-training centers.

In an interview with Reader's Digest, the 76-year-old Sperling said he
believes doctors should be allowed to prescribe all drugs, including
heroin and LSD. Lewis declined to be interviewed.

A spokesman for Soros said he does not support drug legalization.
Nonetheless, Soros has donated millions since 1992 to groups led by
people advocating it. Former Health, Education and Welfare Secretary
Joseph A. Califano, Jr., calls him the "Daddy Warbucks of drug
legalization."

Soros created a drug-policy institute called The Lindesmith Center and
has funded it with $4 million. Its director, Ethan Nadelmann, Soros's
point man on drug policy, has said he wants to "legalize the personal
possession of drugs by adult Americans."

Soros has also given $6.4 million to the Drug Policy Foundation (DPF),
a leading advocate for medical marijuana. Its stated mission is
"publicizing alternatives to current drug strategies." Its founder,
attorney and college professor Arnold Trebach, calls himself a
"flat-out legalizer" who advocates the repeal of current drug laws.

Richard J. Dennis, a 49-year-old Chicago commodities trader and member
of DPF's board of directors, supports both medical marijuana and
legalization in general. In fact, says Dennis, "I'd like to see
legalization for adults for all drugs, including heroin."

On DPF's advisory board is Harvard Medical School psychiatrist Lester
Grinspoon, a leading advocate of medical marijuana for over 25 years.
He compares marijuana's potential benefit to that of penicillin,
predicting, "It will be the wonder drug of the new
millennium."

Soros, Lewis and Sperling gained their biggest victory in November
1996 when California voters passed Proposition 215, also known as the
Compassionate Use Act. It allows pot to be grown and smoked for "any
illness for which marijuana provides relief." There are no age
restrictions. "Illness" is loosely defined and can include headaches,
chronic pain and arthritis. A doctor's oral recommendation is all that
is required.

The principal author of the California initiative was 52-year-old
Dennis Peron, a San Francisco "medical pot club" owner who's been
arrested 15 times on marijuana charges. Peron says he worded the
initiative vaguely because he believes "all marijuana use is medical."
Peron's Cannabis Cultivators' Club is the state's largest pot club,
taking in over $20,000 a day. One day last fall, Peron wandered the
club greeting patrons and handed one a bulging quarter-pound bag of
marijuana.

Standing in line at Peron's smoke-filled club to buy an eighth of an
ounce of high-grade Mexican marijuana was a 39-year-old named Anthony.
Under California's law, Anthony is considered a "seriously ill
patient" who can purchase and smoke pot. He tokes up four or five
times a day.

When asked about his ailment, Anthony answered: "Officially, hernia
discomfort from over strenuous intercourse. Actually, I can't feel it."
He said the club admitted him without any medical referral. A
self-described "potaholic," Anthony has smoked dope since he was 16.
"My problems," he conceded, "are related to a general life-style kind
of thing."

Peron's club had operated for years, despite violating state and
federal drug laws. In August 1996, state drug agents raided it,
seizing 86 pounds of pot and $62,000. "The club was running a
sophisticated illegal drug-distribution network," said a spokesman
for California Attorney General Dan Lungren. A grand jury indicted
Peron, and he awaits trial on felony drug charges. Meanwhile, Peron is
running for governor of California.

Peron's initiative never would have made it to the ballot without the
help of Soros, Lewis and Sperling. California requires 433,269 valid
petition signatures before a "citizen's initiative" can be placed on
the ballot. As the deadline neared, Peron and his unorganized group of
volunteers had collected only 40,000.

That is when Ethan Nadelmann of Soros's Lindesmith Center stepped in.
He helped create Californians for Medical Rights, a sophisticated
campaign organization that pushed the medical-marijuana initiative.
Soros and Lewis poured $400,000 into the group, which paid
professional signature gatherers who, in 90 days, obtained more than
700,000 signatures.

Once the measure was on the ballot, Soros, Lewis and Sperling
contributed a combined $450,000 for advertising. Commercials featured
emotional appeals for relief through the use of marijuana. The ads
never mentioned that Proposition 215 would allow marijuana to be
smoked for any condition, without age restriction and without a
prescription.

One of the numerous medical-marijuana clubs that opened as a result of
Peron's measure was the Dharma Producers Group in San Francisco, which
bragged that it offered "medical marijuana with a Tibetan touch." The
club's "medical director," a ponytailed 52-year-old named Lorenzo
Pace, laughed when he explained his medical-marijuana credentials: "I
did preliminary research all through the '60s."
Californians for Medical Rights has since changed its name to
Americans for Medical Rights. Today it is leading a campaign to place
medical-marijuana initiatives on state ballots across the country.

Rx: LSD

While Californians were voting on medical marijuana, their neighbors
in Arizona were considering an even more radical initiative. The Drug
Medicalization, Prevention and Control Act of 1996 proposed to
legalize not only marijuana but also more than 100 other
drugs--including heroin, LSD and PCP (angel dust)--for medical use.
Arizona's initiative was sold to voters as a way to get tough on
violent criminals. How? Open up jail space by paroling all first- and
second-time drug offenders. This ignored the fact that virtually all
of the 1200 inmates affected had plea-bargained down from much more
serious charges or had prior felony records.

In Arizona, Sperling spearheaded the campaign. He, Soros and Lewis
contributed a total of $1.2 million; the DPF gave $303,000. This
accounted for 99 percent of the initiative's total funding. As in
California, much of this money paid for a massive media campaign.
Opponents of the initiative, caught unprepared, did not run a single
advertisement.

The measure passed, but a post-election survey revealed that Arizona
voters had been badly misled. Seventy-four percent did not believe
doctors should be able to prescribe drugs such as heroin, PCP and LSD,
as the proposition allowed; 70 percent agreed the initiative would
give children the impression the drugs were also acceptable for
recreational use. The state legislature subsequently passed a statute
that effectively overrode the initiative.

Fighting Back

The organizers of Arizona's initiative moved to place a similar
measure on the ballot in Washington State. Sperling, Lewis and Soros
contributed a total of more than $1.5 million.

Despite being outspent more than ten to one, opponents of the
Washington initiative were not about to be caught unprepared. They
took every opportunity to stress that the measure was not about
compassion, but about legalizing dangerous drugs. Last November voters
rejected the measure.

The defeat in Washington has not sidetracked plans for similar
medical-marijuana initiatives in other states. Battlegrounds include
Hawaii, Florida, Arkansas, Maine and Alaska. An Oregon initiative
would not only legalize use of many drugs but also permit the sale of
marijuana in state liquor stores. In Washington, D.C., Initiative 59
would allow up to four caregivers, including "best friends," to
cultivate pot for a "seriously ill" person. Organizers are hoping that
passage of these initiatives will spur Congress to legalize medical
marijuana under federal law.

Says Dr. Robert DuPont, a former director of the National Institute on Drug
Abuse: "Never in the history of modern medicine has burning leaves been
considered medicine. Those in the medical-marijuana movement are putting on
white coats and expressing concerns about the sick. But people need to see
this

for what it is: a fraud and a hoax."