REEFER MADNESS

ATTORNEY GENERAL John Ashcroft's cruel crusade against the medical use of
marijuana backfired last week.

In an extraordinary display that should thoroughly discredit the endeavor,
federal jurors in California held a press conference to apologize to the
man they had just convicted of cultivating pot - an offense with a
mandatory five-year prison sentence. Jurors were outraged to discover after
the trial that the defendant, Ed Rosenthal, was growing medical cannabis
for the city of Oakland for use by critically ill patients under
California's medical marijuana law.

The judge wouldn't allow that defense to be raised because federal law
doesn't permit the use of marijuana for medical purposes. Mr. Ashcroft is
determined to prevent the states from permitting it, either.

Even so, several of the jurors said if they had known Mr. Rosenthal was
acting as an agent of the city - and was not the drug trafficker that
federal prosecutors described - they would have acquitted him.

That's because those jurors and most Americans have a lot more compassion
and a lot more sense that Mr. Ashcroft. He's so trapped in the '70s with
his anti-pot paranoia he doesn't realize the nation and even the drug
culture have passed him by.

Heroin, crack cocaine and a wide variety of other narcotics remain a
terrible danger, particular to young people. Authorities at every level are
doing their best - as well they should - to combat the illegal use and
trafficking of these life-destroying drugs.

But Americans are widely and increasingly tolerant of marijuana, an herb
that has been used for medical purposes for thousands of years and was
legally prescribed in this country until 1937. Most don't think casual
marijuana use should be punished by more than a fine; 40 percent would
legalize it in small amounts, according to a Time/CNN poll taken last fall.

There's almost no dispute, however, about whether patients with AIDS,
cancer or other devastating ailments should be permitted whatever relief
marijuana can bring by easing pain and boosting appetite. Eight out of 10
Americans think marijuana should once again be legal with a doctor's
prescription, the poll showed.

With that much popular support, state and local governments are giving the
raspberries to the feds and making marijuana available to critically ill
patients on their own. Eight states have acted so far; Maryland looks
likely this year to join them.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers is backing a bill that would allow patients
approved by the state's medical licensing board to grow marijuana plants
for personal use. Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., who was greatly affected by
watching a family member waste away from cancer, says he is inclined to
support the measure.

If federal authorities were more enlightened, patients could get their pot
prescriptions from pharmacies instead of worrying about the FBI raiding
their backyard plots.