FIRST SEX, NOW DRUGS? HE'S GONE

His political career has gone to pot, up in smoke, down the toilet.
Pick your own Cheech and Chong metaphor.

Stephen B. Johnson has no choice but to resign from the Richmond
School Board after being caught Tuesday at a Richmond International
Airport security checkpoint with three marijuana cigarettes.

The disclosure of Tuesday's in cident came three months after the
revelation that Johnson had sought dates on a pornographic Web site
where men cruise for sex. Perhaps an elected official can survive
that two-fer in Berkeley, Calif. But even someone as productive and
popular as Johnson knew this wasn't going to fly.

Johnson told airport police that the marijuana was for medicinal
purposes. He was not charged and was allowed to continue on his trip.
Airport officials flushed the weed.

Ironically, the incident occurred as Johnson was traveling to a
conference in California, a state often associated with the use of
medicinal marijuana.

In yesterday's Times-Dispatch, Johnson declined to elaborate on his
medical condition. "I think my medical history is personal," he said.

Roy B. Scherer, an activist and former marijuana lobbyist, called
Johnson's situation "a bloody shame."

"From everything I've read, Johnson was doing a good job as chairman
of the board and as a member of the board . . . . His decision, I
would say the School Board is the worst for it."

According to Scherer, Virginia enacted a law during the late 1970s
acknowledging the medicinal uses of marijuana. The law, which
followed a recommendation by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review
Commission, said patients couldn't be prosecuted for using marijuana
prescribed for glaucoma or to combat the ill effects of cancer chemotherapy.

The law also said doctors couldn't be prosecuted for writing a pot
prescription and pharmacists couldn't be prosecuted for filling one,
he said. But all this was mostly symbolic. "Trouble is, no pharmacy
in Virginia carries marijuana," he said.

Scherer has grown accustomed to being approached by strangers seeking
medicinal marijuana on behalf of sick relatives.

Marinol, a prescription drug that includes the active ingredient
found in marijuana, has been approved for nausea and vomiting from
cancer chemotherapy and as an appetite stimulant for AIDS patients.
But ingesting it orally is slower-acting than inhaling marijuana,
said Dr. Aron Lichtman, an associate professor of pharmacology and
toxicology at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Meanwhile, the hundreds of potentially harmful chemicals in marijuana
smoke prevent its approval for medical use by the Food and Drug
Administration, Lichtman said.

As the smoke clears from Johnson's latest incident, even his most
ardent supporters must ask how such a capable School Board member
could exhibit such an inexplicable lapse in judgment while under the
microscope. And he now has a problem overseeing a school system that
describes itself as a "drug and alcohol-free workplace."

We wish him good health and appreciate his service to the board. But
he has a credibility problem. Johnson's decision to step down is the
correct one.