MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Heads Of The Class

As if Monday's Iowa caucuses weren't bad enough for former Vermont governor
Howard Dean, now comes this: a score card created by Granite Staters for
Medical Marijuana (GSMM) rates Dean's position on medicinal marijuana as
nearly comparable to those of President George W. Bush. Indeed, the
Manchester, New Hampshire-based group gave Dean a D-, which barely squeaks
by Bush's grade of F. In response to questions put to candidates by GSMM,
Dean has said that, if elected, he would halt Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA) raids on terminally ill patients who use pot to ease
their pain - a bare-minimum requirement for a "passing" grade from the
advocacy group.

Yet this supposedly liberal candidate has also said he'd deal with the
issue of medical marijuana by ordering the federal government to study it
further.

Not the most progressive of stances, to say the least.

The highest grade went to Ohio congressman Dennis Kucinich, who got an A+
from the GSMM for saying he supports medical marijuana "without
reservation." Kucinich, who garnered one percent of the vote on Monday, has
even vowed to sign an executive order permitting medicinal pot use on his
first day in the White House. Clearly, as Aaron Houston, GSMM's project
coordinator puts it, "Kucinich exceeded all our expectations." Another A
went to Carol Moseley Braun, who dropped out of the race last Thursday to
endorse Dean. Meanwhile, Senator John Kerry earned a surprisingly high
mark: an A-. That's because Kerry not only supports federal
medical-marijuana legislation, but also displayed what Houston calls
"compassion" toward patients when he penned a November 2003 letter to the
DEA urging it to allow the University of Massachusetts at Amherst to study
the issue. As for the remaining Democratic candidates, their placements
ranged from the not-so-shabby to the downright embarrassing. Retired
General Wesley Clark can take pride in a B+ for his unequivocal commitment
to end the DEA raids, as can the Reverend Al Sharpton, who earned a B. But
the same cannot be said of Senators John Edwards and Joe Lieberman, both of
whom failed GSMM's basic test - pledging to end the raids. (As did
Congressman Dick Gephardt, who dropped out of the race Tuesday after
finishing fourth in the Iowa caucuses.) All in all, GSMM's report card
(available online at www.granitestaters.com) shows that the Democratic
Party largely reflects the general public's attitude when it comes to the
issue of medical marijuana.

After all, five of the seven remaining Democratic presidential hopefuls
hold sympathetic positions about medical marijuana, while 84 percent of the
New Hampshire electorate backs legislation legalizing its use. "The real
story is that the Democrats understand voter sentiment," Houston says. And
for those candidates who don't? "We will continue to press the candidates
to adopt compassionate positions toward seriously ill people," he vows.