HIS PRIMARY AGENDA: MARIJUANA FOR THE ILL

Aaron Houston and volunteers keep close tab on candidates' stances

Like the 300 other people gathered at New England College on Friday night,
Aaron Houston wanted to hear a few words from Wesley Clark. But Houston
wasn't interested in Clark's plans for health care, foreign policy or the
economy. He didn't care what the candidate had to say about Social Security
or education. Houston had just one thing on his mind: marijuana.

Houston is campaign coordinator for Granite Staters for Medical Marijuana,
an advocacy group that wants to hear every presidential candidate's stance
on the drug's use by terminally ill patients. In recent months, Houston has
attended dozens of press conferences, town hall meetings and public forums,
probing nearly all candidates on their marijuana views. Despite his narrow
agenda, Houston has probably seen more of the 2004 New Hampshire campaign
than anyone else.

"All the campaigns know me at this point," Houston said, as he waited for
Clark to arrive on campus. "After numerous times asking them to talk about
the issue, the candidates say their answers are a direct result of our
pressure and our education. . . . It feels great to make a difference."

The laws governing the use of medical marijuana are a blurry blend of state
and federal regulations. Nine states, including Maine, permit the drug's use
by the terminally ill. But the Food and Drug Administration prohibits
marijuana use under any circumstance. In the past year, agents with the Drug
Enforcement Administration have raided marijuana growers in California,
where medical marijuana is allowed, often without support from local
authorities.

Houston's ultimate goal is to end those raids in the short term and get the
federal government to decriminalize the drug's use by terminally ill
patients. And he's convinced that a majority of voters feel medical
marijuana is of such pressing concern that they'll base their presidential
votes on a candidate's policy toward the issue.

"It should be a common-sense policy," he said. "Most people recognize this
as a mainstream issue."

But it's a challenge to get the candidates to talk about it, Houston said,
which explains why he spends seven days a week trying to get in their faces.
Last week was typical, with stops to see Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry in
Henniker, Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich in Keene, and back to Henniker for
Clark.

At most of these events, Houston brings along a handful of volunteers, many
of them sick with diseases they say could be made more bearable with a few
puffs of marijuana. They're strategically placed throughout the room, each
with a list of questions intended to probe the candidates to get as specific
as possible. Friday in Henniker was a textbook example of Houston's
strategy. When Clark began accepting questions from the audience, the second
person he pointed to was Linda Masia, a GSMM member who had rolled her
wheelchair to the front row, just a few feet from Clark. Masia told Clark
that she suffered from arthritis and a degenerative nerve ailment, and was
allergic to conventional medications. When she asked Clark if he would
arrest ill people who used medical marijuana, the candidate fixed her in his
gaze and said firmly, "The answer is no."

Afterward, Houston said it was a good start, but he still wanted more
details from Clark.

Legalizing marijuana for whatever purpose may seem like an idealistic cause
to some, a crusade undertaken by aging flower children or ambitious
Deadheads. But Friday night in Henniker, Houston exuded youthful
earnestness. With his clean-scrubbed looks, he gave the impression of a
college senior on his first job interview: blue pinstripe suit, blue dress
shirt, blue tie and a neatly trimmed brush cut. He spoke clearly and at
length about the Federal Drug Administration's approval process, the
chemical structure of marijuana and the New Hampshire political scene.

Houston's biography offers an equally sobering portrait. Now 25, he grew up
in Colorado, the son of a Navy intelligence officer and a one-time Denver
election commissioner. He worked his way through the University of Colorado
as a legislative aide in the statehouse. He left college a few credits short
of the dual bachelor's and master's degrees he was pursuing. But he soon
found work as a lobbyist and political consultant, managing a handful of
races for Congress and Colorado governor.

Despite his pedigree and early experience, Houston says he is not by nature
a political animal. Though he loves the energy of campaigns, he realized
early on that he couldn't put his heart behind a single candidate. Instead,
he longed to devote himself to one pivotal issue. Medical marijuana it was.

"I've always had some reluctance towards politics," he said. "But now I'm
finally intensely focused on an issue that's one of the most critical issues
facing us today. It's about showing compassion and mercy and sympathy for
our fellow citizens."

He's been in New Hampshire since March, where he manages 300 volunteers and
works solo out of an office in Manchester, the only paid employee of Granite
Staters for Medical Marijuana.

The group is funded by the Marijuana Policy Project, a Washington-based
organization seeking across-the-board decriminalization of the drug. But for
the time being, Houston's goal is focusing attention on what he considers
the government's cruel approach to the drug's medicinal uses.

"The greatest harm associated with marijuana is imprisonment and prosecution
of terminally ill patients," he said. "Ideally, we want the president to
sign federal legislation that would allow seriously ill patients to smoke
marijuana and remove any criminal penalties."

The group's Web site assigns a grade to each of the major candidates based
on their stance on medical marijuana. Kucinich is at the top of the class
with an A+; Sens. Bob Graham and John Edwards pull up the rear, each scoring
a D-. (For those of you keeping score, Dean improved his grade considerably
last week, vaulting from a D- to C, the result of his promise, under
questioning from Houston at a campaign stop in Berlin, to temporarily stop
the arrest of medical marijuana users. Kerry improved as well last week,
from a C to a B, after promising to put a permanent end to the arrests.)

Houston and other volunteers have protested Graham and Edwards for their
stances. Houston even mixed it up briefly with Edwards's wife at a campaign
stop in Manchester last month. Elizabeth Edwards urged Houston to curtail
his protest, which included a sign reading "SHAME ON EDWARDS." Houston
declined, and they parted on cordial terms. Such resistance is
understandable, Houston said.

"It is difficult sometimes. We're attempting to get them on the record about
something they probably would not address."

Speaking of going on the record, one final question for Houston: Does he or
doesn't he inhale? The answer is smooth and practiced.

"President Bush has said he doesn't want to get in the politics of personal
destruction," Houston replied. "I guess I'll go public with my record when
he goes public with his."