DEA SUICIDE POLICY SURPRISES RENO

The attorney general says she wasn't notified before the agency declared
it could sanction doctors who follow Oregon's law of The Oregonian staff

WASHINGTON Attorney General Janet Reno said Thursday that the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration failed to notify her before declaring it would
discipline Oregon doctors who prescribe lethal medication.

Reno also said she has not talked about the issue with Thomas A.
Constantine, DEA administrator. Constantine outlined his agency's position
on physicianassisted suicide in a Nov. 5 letter to Sen. Orin Hatch,
RUtah, and Rep. Henry Hyde, RIll., chairmen of the Senate and House
Judiciary committees, which oversee the DEA.

The attorney general's comments Thursday were the strongest indication that
news of Constantine's letter startled Justice officials. The DEA is part
of the Justice Department, which Reno heads.

Asked at a news briefing if it was inappropriate for Constantine to send
such a letter without her knowledge, Reno did not respond directly.

"I think it's important on an issue like that, with legal issues involved,
that the whole department have a chance to review it, and we're in the
process of doing that," he said.

Reno declined to say more about her department's legal review of the
assistedsuicide issue. She also would not speculate on when the review
might be finished.

"I don't know exactly how long it will take, but we want to do it as
quickly as possible, consistent with an appropriate review," Reno said.

Justice officials told Sen. Ron Wyden, DOre., that the review would be
completed soon, according to Wyden's chief of staff, Josh Kardon. "It's
likely to take a good week and a half or so," Kardon said.

Jonathan D. Schwartz, counsel to the deputy attorney general, Eric Holder
Jr., will conduct the review, Kardon said. Schwartz led a similar Justice
Department review last year after California voters approved legalizing he
medical use of marijuana.

Reno and other federal officials later said doctors would face DEA
sanctions if they prescribed marijuana. A group of physicians, patients
and organizations responded by filing a classaction lawsuit against the
federal government this year.

On April 30, a federal judge in San Francisco granted a preliminary
injunction barring the federal government from taking action against
doctors. The lawsuit is pending.

Bert Brandenburg, a Justice Department spokesman, said it was unusual for a
federal agency such as the DEA to state a policy on a legal issue without
consulting with the attorney general's office.

Kris Olson, U.S. attorney for Oregon, said she discussed assisted suicide
with upperlevel Justice officials Monday when she was in Washington D.C.,
for a conference. It was clear those officials had not known of the DEA
letter before it was disclosed in news reports late last week, she said.

Constantine's letter said, in response to a query from Hatch and Hyde, that
his staff had concluded the DEA could revoke a doctor's license to
prescribe certain drugs if the doctor was found to have provided a
controlled substance for assisted suicide. Constantine wrote that assisted
suicide is not a legitimate medical purpose and that prescribing lethal
medication violates federal narcotics law.

HYDE SEES COURT BATTEL

In an interview Wednesday, Hyde said he expects the issue to be settled in
court. In the meantime, he said, he hopes the DEA will enforce the policy
spelled out in Constantine's letter.

"I would hope they would enforce the law, yes," said Hyde, whose committee
oversees the Justice Department. "Our jurisdiction includes oversight, and
if I find instances where the law is being ignored, that makes a mockery of
the law."

Hyde's wife died of cancer after they had been married 45 years, but he
said that experience didn't alter his opinion of assisted suicide.

"I've always been prolife," Hyde said. "I think human life is the
ultimate value, and government ought to protect it if no one else does."

Eli D. Stutsman, a lawyer for the proassisted suicide group Oregon Death
with Dignity, said Reno's comments didn't surprise him.

"I would have been surprised had it been otherwise," Stutsman said.

"The DEA letter is based upon circular reasoning. The DEA did a research
of prior (assisted suicide) cases. None of those prior cases involved a
holding that writing a prescription under the act was a medically
legitimate purpose. And of course not, because prior to the passage of the
act, such a prescription was illegal in all 50 states."

Stutsman said if the DEA had reviewed its regulations in light of the
Oregon Death With Dignity Act, the agency would have concluded that writing
prescriptions in accordance with the state law would not violate DEA rules.

He said he was relieved when he saw the letter from Constantine to Hyde and
Hatch. "It was so plainly in error," he said.

OPPONENTS DON'T SEE CHANGE

James Bopp Jr., an Indiana lawyer representing assistedsuicide opponents,
said Reno's comments don't change anything.

"Their opinion has not changed just because it's being reviewed," he said
of DEA officials.

Bopp said he has no objection to review of the DEA opinion but said he
would be shocked if the DEA changed its position.

He said it's clear the DEA's regulations require the agency to punish
doctors who prescribe lifeending medication under Oregon's assisted
suicide law. but what happens will depend on how the agency withstands
"improper" political pressure to keep the law intact, he said.

"I think it's wrong for politicians to try to convince law enforcement
officers not to properly enforce the law," he said.

Oregon voters approved the law in 1994, and rejected a repeal attempt Nov.
4. It had been held up in the courts for almost three years before a
federal appeals court lifted an injunction Oct. 27.

Jim Kronenberg, spokesman for the Oregon Medical Association, welcomed
Reno's comments.

OMA MEMBERS DIVIDED ON ISSUE

"We are gratified that the attorney general feels that the DEA's decision
should be subject to a more careful legal and policy review," Kronenberg
said, "Washington is a political town that sometimes forgets that not
everything of importance that happens happens there. It is difficult to
imagine that the views of two members of Congress about something in a
state they don't represent are more important than the majority of voters
in that state.

The 5,700 member OMA has members who favor and oppose assisted suicide.
The OMA's position is that it opposes the law as seriously flawed, but it
is neutral on the concept of assisted suicide.

Kathleen Haley, executive director of the Oregon Board of Medical
Examiners, said the debate about the potential conflict between assisted
suicide and federal drug laws will not change how the board performs its
role under the law.

If the board disciplines a physician who has violated a provision of the
assistedsuicide law, the case would be forwarded to the DEA for
investigation, Haley said. But because of state legislation approved last
spring, the board will not tell the DEA of cases it is investigating and
won't send the case to the DEA if the physician is not disciplined, she
said.

We are ratified that the attorney general feels that the DEA's decision
should be subject to a more careful legal and policy review.
Jim Kronenberg,
spokesman, Oregon Medical Association.

Patrick O'Neill and Erin Hoover of The Oregonian staff contributed to this
report.