DON'T BAR LEGALIZED MARIJUANA

For San Francisco resident Dixie Romagno. something as simple as taking a
shower or climbing stairs can make her double over in excruciating pain.

Dixie is in her 20th year of chronic multiple sclerosis to alleviate the
agonizing bone pain spasms and spinal cord problems that wrack her body,
this 46-year-old grandmother of two uses marijuana. Five million
Californians backed her right to do so when they approved a 1996 ballot
measure that allows the use of marijuana for people who suffer from AIDS,
cancer and other serious illnesses.

In San Francisco, we've worked hard to honor that right by making marijuana
obtainable through a dispensary clinic that operates with the co-operation
of local authorities. But now the federal government wants to take away
that right. In January, the Justice Department filed a civil suit to shut
down six medical marijuana dispensaries in Northern California, including
the San Francisco Marijuana Cultivators Club, which Dixie, along with 8,000
other ailing Californians, depend on for their medicine.

The Justice Department views the suit as a simple case of state law
tangling with the supremacy of federal law. "The issue is not the medical
use of marijuana," U.S. Attorney Michael Yamaguchi has said. "It's about
the per-sistent violation of federal law."

But as mayor of a city that has seen more than its share of people
suffering and dying from AIDS, I know that's not the end of the issue. The
debate over medical marijuana is, above all else, about compassion for
people in pain.

Enforcing a law for its own sake can still cause unintended harm to
innocent persons. The closure of cannabis patient clubs would force
individuals like Dixie to suffer needless agony. Many will be compelled to
buy their medicine from the streets. This would endanger their lives and
place undue burden on local law enforcement whose time would be better
spent pursuing real criminals, not desperate patients.

In San Francisco and in cities across California, local health and police
officials have worked with medical marijuana dispensaries to ensure that
they operate in the spirit of the law. Controls have been encouraged and
simple-mented to guard against abuse, Including the use of standardized
medical forms from doctors and photo identification cards certifying
legitimate patients.

The current system isn't perfect. But until marijuana is approved by the
Federal Drug Administration as a prescription drug, California's medical
marijuana dispensaries are a viable medical alternative. Many of the tens
of thousands of patients who use marijuana do so often as a last resort
when all other prescribed medicines have failed, or produce side effects
that cancel out their benefits. Most of them can't cultivate their own
marijuana; that's they rely on the clubs.

Rather than censure this public health crisis with a lawsuit, the Justice
Department should urge the Clinton administration to work with local and
state governments to implement a plan for distributing medical marijuana
that complies with both federal and state law and that puts the needs of
patients first.

The California Senate is reviewing a bill to establish a task force that
would research and make recommendations about the safe and affordable
distribution of marijuana to patients in medical need. In December, the
White House Office of National Drug Control Policy is expected to release
the results of a study that will report on marijuana's medical
effectiveness. These initiatives are promising, but the process will take
time.

In the interim, the federal government should impose a moratorium on
enforcement of marijuana laws that interfere with the locally regulated
operation of cannabis patient clubs and allow patients access to their
medicine.

Californians with life-threatening diseases shouldn't have to suffer while
their elected representatives work to find a middle ground between local
discretion and federal supremacy.