DEA Boss Upset With Murphy Brown

By The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) Fictional broadcaster Murphy Brown's in trouble again
with a government official. The chief of the Drug Enforcement
Administration accused the CBS television character Wednesday of sending a
dangerous message to children by using marijuana to relieve nausea caused
by chemotherapy.

In a statement issued a few hours before Wednesday's broadcast of the
situation comedy, DEA Administrator Thomas Constantine said CBS and the
show's creators were ``doing a great disservice'' by ``trivializing drug
abuse'' and ``pandering to the libertarian supporters of an `open society'
and to the myths of legalization.''

In Wednesday's episode, actress Candice Bergen, who plays television
reporter Brown, is shown smoking a marijuana cigarette to quell nausea
produced by chemotherapy prescribed to treat her breast cancer. The illegal
marijuana is purchased for her by another character, anchorman Jim Dial,
who is concerned over her inability to get relief from legal drugs and
therapies.

``As a law enforcement official with 38 years of experience and, even more
importantly, a father and grandfather,'' Constantine said,. ``I am
extremely troubled that at a time when teenage drug abuse is doubling ... a
television show of the caliber of Murphy Brown would portray marijuana as
medicine. It is not medicine.... More dangerously, the show send the
message to our children that marijuana must be OK because it's medicine.''

CBS vice president Chris Enders replied in an interview, ``Murphy Brown has
a rich history of blending comedy with controversial political and social
issues and doing it responsibly. We stand firmly behind this episode, which
deals with the medicinal use of marijuana in a compelling, poignant and
sometimes humorous manner.''

Enders said the episode got a more restrictive rating than the show usually
does TV14, which means parents are strongly urged to exercise greater
care in monitoring the program and are cautioned against letting children
under the age of 14 watch unattended.

In 1992, thenVice President Dan Quayle touched off a national debate when
he accused the show of undermining families with Murphy Brown's decision to
have a child out of wedlock.

Constantine said that smoked marijuana has ``more harmful chemicals than
cigarettes and damages the immune system.''

He said medical experts, the American Medical Association, the American
Glaucoma Society and the American Cancer Society have rejected marijuana as
medicine; that its active ingredient, THC, is available by prescription and
work is under way on other nausea treatments.

``I'm sorry if we've upset Mr. Constantine. Obviously he hasn't seen the
show,'' said Mark Flanigan, executive producer of ``Murphy Brown,'' ``We
had no political agenda. We are not advocating the medical use of marijuana.''

Flanigan said physicians and cancer specialists told the writers that some
patients do relieve nausea with marijuana when other drugs don't work, so
they wrote marijuana into the script only after showing Brown
unsuccessfully trying all other known treatments.

``Marijuana was secondary to the story about Jim Dial and Murphy Brown. He
comes to her aid; he risks something,'' Flanigan said. ``People will go to
any lengths to come to the aid of loved ones. That's what the story is
about.''

Flanigan said he hoped that if Constantine views the episode he would see
``our intention was to reflect what's happening, not to advocate a course
of action.'' He added, ``I think we are doing a public service by ...
increasing awareness of breast cancer.''