BIPARTISAN COMPROMISE REACHED ON ANTI-DRUG ADVERTISING

WASHINGTON (AP) - Republicans and Democrats agreed Thursday that the
Bush administration shouldn't buy advertising to oppose state and
local campaigns aimed at easing marijuana penalties.

The agreement became part of legislation that would keep the White
House anti-drug office in business for another five years. The House
Government Reform Committee approved the bill by a voice vote.

The committee also dropped a Republican proposal that would move some
drug enforcement money from state and local police agencies and give
it to federal departments in states that legalized marijuana for
medical use. GOP sponsors said they never considered the proposal a
major part of the anti-drug campaign.

The restrictive advertising language would prohibit ads that advocate
support or defeat of any clearly identified candidate, ballot
initiative, legislative or regulatory proposal. It was aimed at
ensuring that the White House could not use the extensive anti-drug
advertising campaign to oppose state and local medical marijuana
initiatives.

Federal law does not permit legalization of marijuana, and the
director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, John Walters,
has traveled the country to speak out against easing marijuana laws.

Maryland recently became the latest state to have a medical marijuana
law, joining Hawaii, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California, Colorado,
Nevada and Maine.

Steve Fox, director of government relations for the Marijuana Policy
Project, said the legislation should have included greater
restrictions on the director's activities.

"Unfortunately, the committee did not extend the common sense
restriction on using taxpayer funds for political purposes to the
activities of the drug czar," said Fox, whose group wants to remove
criminal penalties for marijuana use.

Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., chairman of the Government Reform panel's
criminal justice subcommittee, said the groups advocating a change in
the law were extremists who wrongly accused the committee of
supporting political ads.

"That was never my intention or the intention of the bill," Souder
said.