PRESIDENT BUSH'S DRUG CZAR ADDRESSES MEDICAL POT ISSUE

President George Bush's drug czar John Walters came to San Francisco
Monday and wanted to talk drugs, but the only drug San Franciscans
wanted to hear about was pot.

Walters, the Director of the National Drug Control Policy, arrived at
the Glide Health Services Recovery Center, to promote improved
cooperation between the federal government and local drug treatment
organizations in the nation's top 25 cities.

However, Walters spent a majority of his press conference discussing
the federal government's policies on medical marijuana and how they
interact with The City's

"I wish we could take this off the table, to be honest with you,"
Walters said before addressing the issue of medical marijuana. "Why
can't we take this off the table? Because we have a system of federal
law that uses science to devise a safe and advantageous message...I
can't say it's safe when it's not."

California passed Proposition 215 in 1996 that allowed medicinal
marijuana smoking for seriously ill patients, and allowed cultivators
to grow it for such uses. This butts heads with the federal laws that
continue to ban all marijuana. The result has been several
high-profile drug busts of local pot clubs by the Drug Enforcement
Agency. To add to the tension, San Francisco passed Propisition S last
year, which would explore the possibility of the city growing
marijuana instead of individuals.

The drug czar emphasized that smoked marijuana has not met the medical
requirements for legalization, and would still be prosecuted by the
federal government. This argument was not popular to the 30 or so
pro-pot protesters gathered outside Glade to protest the federal
government's infringement on local marijuana law.

In recent months, Walters took on some pro-pot arguments, disputing
marijuana's label as a "soft" drug, saying that kids are smoking
higher potency marijuana at younger ages, and that smokers had been
shown to become dependent. He also claimed that people such as New
York financier George Soros, as a front for their desire to see pot
legalized, were funding the pro-marijuana movement, and challenged him
to debate the idea of marijuana as medicine.

Due to his strong statements and to flush out some of the arguments,
Glide Memorial's Reverend Cecil Williams, invited Walters to a
marijuana forum being hosted today.

District Attorney Terence Hallinan, a long-time advocate for medical
marijuana met with Walters along with public health and law
enforcement representatives Monday. Hallinan said he instigated a
15-minute discussion with the "drug czar" regarding San Francisco's
desire to protest their pot clubs.

"We tried to get him into a discussion of medical marijuana, and he
had a typical knee-jerk reaction to that...I said you have discretion,
just give us some guidance about what's acceptable and what's not, and
of course he immediately said 'Aw, follow the law,'" Hallinan said.
"He's probably never had a confrontation quite like that."

Rev. Williams told protesters that he was glad that a dialogue had
been started, and if nothing else, Walters came away with a sense of
San Francisco's commitment to the marijuana laws.