HANDS OFF SICK PEOPLE WHO NEED MARIJUANA

It's Not As If the Bush Administration Doesn't Know How to Look the
Other Way When Laws Are Being Broken.

If ever a piece of legislation should pass readily through the U.S.
House of Representatives, it is a measure sponsored by Rep. Maurice
Hinchey, D-N.Y., and Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., that would prevent
the Justice Department from using tax dollars to prosecute
medical-marijuana patients in states that have legalized its use.
Because it is a good bill, expect it to fail.

Polls show some three out of four Americans support allowing doctors
to prescribe medical marijuana for patients who need it. Members must
know that constituents within their districts use marijuana to
control pain and nausea -- their families would like to live without
the fear of prosecution. As Time magazine reported last year,
research shows that the drug has salutary "analgesic and
anti-inflammatory effects."

Republicans should be drawn to the states' rights angle of the bill,
while Democrats should go for the personal stories of constituents
who have found relief, thanks to medical marijuana.

Yet when the House last voted on the measure in 2005, it tanked in a
264-162 vote. As the House prepares to reconsider the measure, few
expect it to pass. "I wish I could tell you it's going to pass,"
Marijuana Policy Project spokesman Bruce Mirken conceded by phone
last week. "I can't realistically expect that."

Over the last decade, two big hurdles existed: Republicans and
Democrats. Last year, a mere 15 Repubs voted for the measure -- down
from 19 GOP members who supported it in 2004. On the other side of
the aisle, Democrats are moving toward the light. In 1998, the
Clinton Justice Department filed suit against California
medical-marijuana clubs. Last year, however, an impressive 145 Dems
voted for Hinchey-Rohrabacher.

Martin Chilcutt of Kalamazoo, Mich., has written to his local GOP
congressman, Rep. Fred Upton. A veteran who believes he got cancer
because of his military service, Chilcutt told me that his Veterans
Administration hospital doctors supported his use of medical
marijuana when he had cancer.

Upton's office told me that Upton believes Marinol, the legal
synthetic drug that includes the active ingredient in marijuana,
should do the trick.

I asked Chilcutt if he had tried the drug. "I don't like Marinol at
all," Chilcutt replied. It takes too long to work, it is hard to
calibrate the dose you need, and "it made me feel weird." He prefers
marijuana because it works instantly -- "You can control the amount
you're using, and you get instant feedback."

Upton also fears sending the wrong message to kids about marijuana.
But federal law has long allowed the sick access to needed pain
control with drugs more powerful than marijuana. Only bad politics
can account for the fact that marijuana is a Schedule 1 drug under
the Controlled Substances Act, and thus deemed more harmful than
cocaine and morphine -- drugs that can kill users who overdose.

Alex Holstein, a former GOP operative and conservative activist, is
lobbying Republicans on behalf of the Marijuana Policy Project. He
believes that regardless of their position on medical marijuana,
Repubs in the California delegation should support
Hinchey-Rohrabacher because state voters approved Proposition 215 --
and Republicans should stand up for states' rights and the will of
California voters.

As it is, President Bush should direct the Justice Department to lay
off medical-marijuana users -- because it is the right thing to do
for sick people.

It's not as if the administration doesn't know how to sit on its
hands and not enforce existing law. Last week, the Washington Post
reported that under Bush, the number of employers prosecuted for
hiring illegal aliens plummeted from 182 in 1999 to four in 2003.

If the Bushies can look the other way when well-heeled employers
break the law, they can look the other way when sick people try to
relieve unnecessary pain.