MEDICINAL-POT LAWS GIVEN MIXED REVIEWS

Law enforcement officials in four of the states that allow medicinal use of
marijuana say the laws have had minimal impact on crime fighting, although
they at times complicate prosecution of drug cases, a congressional report
said Friday.

The report by the General Accounting Office said only a small fraction of
the people in Oregon, Hawaii and Alaska used marijuana for medicinal
purposes. The results in California, the fourth state studied, were limited
to only four counties and no statewide data was available.

Some law enforcement officials said that while crime fighting was not
harmed, the laws allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana at times has
complicated efforts to seize illegal marijuana or to prosecute some cases,
according to the GAO report.