LAWMAKERS REBUFF WHITE HOUSE IN DRUG CONTROL BILL

WASHINGTON (Reuters Health) - Lawmakers approved national drug control
legislation Thursday after stripping out provisions allowing the White House
to use federal dollars to campaign in the media against efforts to legalize
marijuana for medicinal use.

The House Committee on Government Reform voted to approve the strategy by a
near-unanimous vote, a week after a disagreement over how to use the
national $1 billion in anti-drug media campaign funds delayed its
consideration.

The bill originally contained language allowing the director of the White
House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) to buy anti-medical
marijuana advertisements with money from the national youth anti-drug media
campaign.

White House officials and many Republican lawmakers supported the language
as a way to aid ONDCP director Jon P. Walters in his ongoing campaign
against state referenda and laws permitting marijuana distribution or use
for some medical patients. But Democrats objected to the provision, arguing
that it would allow the White House to use taxpayer money to wage partisan
campaigns against candidates or initiatives it did not agree with.

Congress currently plans to spend some $200 million per year on
youth-targeted anti-drug ads over the next five years.

Lawmakers also struck a provision that would have allowed the White House to
deny some federal drug enforcement aid in jurisdictions that have supported
medical marijuana initiatives.

"There was a strong consensus among members that drug control should not be
a partisan issue," said Rep. Mark E. Souder, R-Ind., who helped craft the
compromise with Democrats.

Nine states currently permit marijuana use for patients with a doctor's
prescription or have relaxed penalties for possession of the drug.

Walters has aggressively campaigned against the initiatives, saying that
they threaten to undermine federal drug laws against marijuana distribution
and use. His opposition stoked challenges from marijuana activists, who
filed lawsuits accusing him of breaking federal laws that ban administration
officials from participating in state political campaigns.

The federal Office of Special Counsel ruled earlier this week in Walters'
favor in the case, essentially clearing the way for him and other drug
control officials to continue campaigning against medical marijuana efforts.

Kevin Sabet, an ONDCP spokesman, said that the removal of permission to use
media campaign money against medical marijuana would not slow Walters'
efforts. "We don't need the media campaign to fight legalizations," he said.

"The victory for (the White House) is that they have another billion in
taxpayer money to waste," said Steve Fox, a lobbyist for Marijuana Policy
Project, a pro-medical marijuana group.

The bill must now go the full House for approval.