MEDICAL POT GROUP TARGETS MEMBERS

Medical-marijuana backers are targeting a bipartisan group of House members
that they claim are hostile to patients who toke up to ease the pain.

On Friday - the one-year anniversary of the sentencing of Ed Rosenthal, who
was convicted for growing marijuana - hundreds of patients and others will
descend on 100 congressional district offices to protest what they view as
the mistreatment of medical-marijuana users.

The Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) is coordinating the protests. Targets
include Reps. Joseph Hoeffel (D-Pa.) and George Nethercutt (R-Wash.), both
running for Senate and Reps. Dennis Cardoza (D-Calif.), Heather Wilson
(R-N.M.) and David Wu (D-Ore.).

The group singled out members opposed to an amendment introduced by Reps.
Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) and Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) that would prevent
the Justice Department from harassing medical-marijuana patients and
caregivers.

The amendment failed, attracting the support of 152 members last year.

MPP spokesman Bruce Mirken said that it was impossible to target all the
members who had opposed the amendment and that, in some cases, the group
zeroed in on members considered possibly open to a vote change.

Mirken said focusing on some members - such as Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.) -
"would be a waste of time."

Souder spokesman Martin Green, said, "Congressman Souder, in his capacity
as chairman of the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human
Resources, has held hearings at which the Food and Drug Administration and
other agencies that have examined [both] sides [of the issue] have
demonstrated that there isn't medicinal value in smoked marijuana."

Mirken said the MPP hopes that the medical-marijuana issue could tip the
scales in close Senate contests in Washington, Pennsylvania and elsewhere
this fall.