CONGRESS SHOULD REJECT ASSAULT ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA

The Issue

A House subcommittee is considering a bill that would cut off federal
drug-enforcement aid to states that allow medical marijuana.

REPUBLICANS in Congress are joining Attorney General John Ashcroft in
trying to bludgeon Hawaii and other states into scrapping laws that allow
marijuana to be used for medical purposes. Legislation being considered by
a House committee would strip federal drug-enforcement money from police in
states with medical-marijuana laws and undoubtedly spend it instead on
prosecution of such cases in those states. States should be free to allow
marijuana to be used for therapeutic purposes without federal interference.

Marijuana has been shown to be effective in relieving pain from AIDS,
cancer, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma and other illnesses. In a study
commissioned by the Clinton White House, the Institute of Medicine in 1999
confirmed those benefits. Use of marijuana is allowed for medical purposes
in Hawaii, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California, Colorado, Nevada and Maine.

The Justice Department nevertheless brought charges of marijuana
cultivation and conspiracy against Ed Rosenthal, who grew marijuana to be
used in connection with a program in Oakland, Calif., that dispenses
marijuana to ill and dying patients whose doctors prescribe it. A federal
jury, denied information about the use of Rosenthal's marijuana, convicted
him as an ordinary drug dealer in January; jurors expressed outrage after
learning of those facts after the trial.

In Hawaii, residents who are allowed to grow and possess marijuana for
medical purposes are required to register with the state's public safety
director. However, legitimate medical users were placed in jeopardy by a
U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2001 that the federal ban against marijuana
distribution allows no exceptions. The ruling concerned organized
production of marijuana, not its use, but the Justice Department interprets
it as allowing it to trample on states' authority to allow medical use of
marijuana.

Legislation sponsored by Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., chairman of the House
Government Reform criminal justice subcommittee, would transfer to federal
drug agents more than $11 million in drug-enforcement funds now distributed
to the eight states allowing medical marijuana usage. The Souder bill also
would authorize the Bush administration's drug policy office to launch an
advertising campaign arguing that marijuana should not be legalized for any
purpose.

The federal government is able to prevail over state laws under the U.S.
Constitution's provision that federal law is "the supreme law of the land."
That clause has been applied for good purposes, such as forcing states to
desegregate schools. Forcing states to abandon medical marijuana laws would
be an abuse of federal supremacy.