POT ZEALOT SHOULD SAVE HIS BREATH

If he truly cared about people with cancer, glaucoma and AIDS, Don Christen
would go home, fire up a joint and keep his mouth shut.

But for Maine's premier pothead, medical use of marijuana is more than just
an idea whose time has come. It's a foot in the door, a step toward that
glorious day when all of the world's troubles will disappear in a cloud of
cannabis.

In other words, it's the best reason yet to ignore Don Christen.

But that, unfortunately, won't be easy. Maine is caught in a tug of war
between two petitions calling for statewide votes on the medical use of
marijuana - and while they may sound like the same thing, they aren't.

One is supported by Mainers for Medical Rights - a coalition ranging from
doctors and patients to the Maine AIDS Alliance, the Maine Civil Liberties
Union and a growing number of political leaders. Like the national effort
on which it is based, it would allow doctors to prescribe marijuana for
those specific diseases - epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma, cancer,
AIDS - where the drug clearly provides some patients a welcome measure of
relief.

Patients like Dr. Michael Lindey, a Freeport veterinarian who in 1995
underwent four major operations and six months of chemotherapy for cancer -
and in the process watched his 180-pound frame shrink by 50 pounds before
he turned to marijuana.

''I had a tremendous, tremendous turnaround,'' said Lindey, who beat the
cancer into remission, regained his lost weight and stopped using marijuana
''with no trouble at all.''

The other plan, a smoke screen for a much larger objective, comes from
Christen and his Maine Citizens for Medical Marijuana.

First, they argue that doctors should be allowed to prescribe pot to anyone
for anything. Then they propose that patients be allowed to possess as much
marijuana as they want (the MMR plan limits possession to 1 ounces and six
growing plants).

And, lest we forget all the healthy people who also might benefit from an
occasional buzz, Christen and his followers continue to circulate another
petition advocating their ultimate goal - legalize marijuana for it.everyone.

''We need to take the politics and the cops right out of it,'' Christen
said last week. Especially the cops - in the past seven years, he's been
jailed three times on charges ranging from trafficking in marijuana to
lighting up on the steps of the Somerset County Courthouse.

The problem here isn't just that Christen's crusade confuses the issue -
although it certainly does that. The problem is Christen.

At a time when voters need a calm, reasonable discussion of the merits of
marijuana for people far more interested in staying alive than staying
high, Christen's confrontational style serves only to stoke his own
hyperventilated ego. (On a radio talk show last week, he taunted one caller
with the claim that he was smoking a joint as they spoke.)

And at a time when many people find themselves torn between their sympathy
for sick people and their disdain for illegal drugs, Christen's far-out
agenda and tarnished reputation could easily turn support for a clearly
noble cause into rejection of a glassy-eyed zealot.

If Christen truly wanted to help, he'd listen to Lindey and other patients
who see medical use of marijuana as a goal, not a tactic. Then he'd see
himself for the liability he is and get out of the way.

''All we're saying is let the people decide,'' Christen insisted between
tokes last week.

Lindey, for one, already has. The issue is medical marijuana for sick
people - not party time for Don Christen.

''I think they're hurting us,'' Lindey said.

©Copyright 1998 Guy Gannett Communications