MARIJUANA PROTEST LEADS TO ARRESTS AT WHITE HOUSE

WASHINGTON (Reuters Health) - Two people were arrested Monday after
handcuffing themselves to the White House fence to protest recent
federal government raids on "medical marijuana" cooperatives in California.

The arrests occurred after about two dozen demonstrators gathered in
front of the White House, holding signs and chanting slogans demanding
an end to what they see as Bush administration interference with state
laws governing marijuana use. About an hour after the protests began,
US Park Police took a pair of protesters into custody who had bound
themselves to the iron barricade separating the White House lawn from
Pennsylvania Avenue.

"Stop the war on patients. Support the patients by any nonviolent
means necessary," protester Charles Thomas said through a bullhorn
before being removed and handcuffed by police.

Marijuana has become popular with some severely ill patients because
of its apparent ability to ease pain and nausea. Some people with AIDS
use the drug to help stimulate appetite and fight wasting. Cancer,
glaucoma and multiple sclerosis patients may also use marijuana to
treat various symptoms.

A 1996 state ballot initiative legalized some marijuana use by ill
patients in California, as long as they used the drug under the
supervision of a doctor who could vouch it was for medically
legitimate purposes. Since then, eight other states, including Nevada
and Arizona, have passed similar initiatives through legislation or
ballot actions.

But the Bush administration remains opposed to the measures, saying
that federal laws criminalizing marijuana use and distribution
supersede individual states' efforts to legalize it in certain
circumstances. The US Supreme Court upheld that view in a ruling last
year.

The federal Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has raided several
California marijuana pharmacies since 1996, the most recent on
September 5, when armed agents raided a medical marijuana collective
in Santa Cruz, California. The move sparked protests from patients,
activists and local government authorities.

Protesters on Monday also held up banners in support of Bryan Epis, a
Chico, California marijuana collective operator and patient who was
convicted in June of federal felony drug trafficking charges. Epis is
due to be sentenced in October and faces a mandatory prison term of at
least 10 years.

"These raids are unconstitutional. The marijuana is grown in
California, it is distributed by Californians and used by California
patients," said Eric Sterling, an activist with Washington-based
Americans for Safe Access.

A 1999 report by the Institute of Medicine found limited evidence that
marijuana's active ingredients may be "moderately well suited" to ease
chemotherapy and AIDS symptoms, but that smoking marijuana was an
unreliable and potentially harmful way of administering the drug.

White House officials backed the raids, saying that medical marijuana
initiatives constitute both bad medical practice and an unsafe
tolerance of illegal drugs.

"We have medications on formulary, approved by the Food and Drug
Administration that are effective" for AIDS symptoms or chemotherapy
side effects, said Dr. Andrea G. Barthwell, the deputy director for
demand reduction at the White House Office for National Drug Control
Policy.

Barthwell maintained that efforts to legalize marijuana for medical
purposes also undermine campaigns to stem adolescent recreational
marijuana use. A federal survey released earlier this month showed
that first-time marijuana use among American teens was at or near its
highest levels in 20 years.

"If you give them mixed signals such as, 'marijuana is a drug,
marijuana is a medicine,' they don't know what to do with that," she
said in an interview.

Last Thursday, a federal appeals court blocked an attempt to place a
medical marijuana initiative on voters' ballots in the District of
Columbia. Nearly 70% of voters approved a measure allowing medical
marijuana in 1998, but the US Congress prevented it from taking effect.

Last week's ruling overturned a lower court decision allowing the new
initiative to go forward.

"They have to circumvent democracy in this country to protect a failed
war on drugs," said demonstrator Adam Eidinger.