DRUG CZAR CHALLENGED

I am quite sure that Gazette reporter Rusty Carter was unaware that Dr.
Andrea Barthwell ("Drug forum draws national interest," May 25 Gazette) has
been hired by a British company called GW Pharmaceuticals that is
attempting to market a liquid version of marijuana called Sativex. It is
indistinguishable from the crude drug, having all its components but
recombined in liquid form.

Dr. Barthwell earned a considerable amount of taxpayer money as deputy
director of the Organization for National Drug Control Policy, railing
against exactly the same drug. Now, instead of claiming that marijuana has
absolutely no medicinal properties, she now states that only Sativex has
medicinal properties, and the "crude drug" does not.

The self-serving hypocrisy of this statement becomes glaringly obvious, and
I am not surprised that she did not mention this.

As to her "defeating an Illinois bill to legalize marijuana," the bill's
purpose was to eliminate criminal penalties for those who were so ill that
marijuana was their only relief. Cannabis (the proper name) would have
remained illegal for the public-at-large. The bill would have required a
doctor's approval and the process subject to local regulation. Dr.
Barthwell was invited to debate with the legislator who had proposed the
bill. She declined.

Such contempt for the democratic process by one who was sworn to uphold it
is indicative of Dr. Barthwell's approach to matters of public interest.
She had, in her tenure as deputy drug czar, consistently refused to debate
the merits of drug law reform, preferring to snipe instead from the
agency's ivory tower's battlements. She hasn't changed her modus operandi
since leaving public service.

It should be of interest that nearly every person who has held high
positions within the federal anti-drug apparatus (such as Robert DuPont,
Barry McCaffery, etc.) has, while in office, promoted drug testing (despite
studies which have shown it provides no "magic bullet" to prevent use) and
then, after leaving office, have taken positions with drug-testing companies.

Dr. Barthwell has dutifully followed in the footsteps of her predecessors.
This is a classic example of the "revolving door" and "double dipping" if
ever there was one.

When shorn of the glowing rhetoric of saving the children, Dr. Barthwell is
just another self-seeking opportunist who is well aware of the futility of
attempting to control illicit drugs in this country using the punitive
approach. She is cynically using the system to reward herself financially.
Her latest efforts are just a continuation of past behaviors.

Charles M. Darlington

Reston