GOVERNMENT WARNS PARENTS ABOUT MARIJUANA

20 Percent Of 8th Graders Admit They've Tried Drug

WASHINGTON - Worried that one out of five eighth graders admits to having
tried marijuana - up from one out of 10 a decade ago - the White House and
the nation's top doctor, Surgeon General Richard Carmona, are beginning a
campaign today to try to convince parents this is a dangerous trend.

"There's a myth that marijuana isn't as dangerous as smoking," Dr. Carmona
said. "That's not true. It's dangerous and addictive."

Noting that marijuana has three to five times more tar and carbon monoxide
than many cigarettes, he said that the number of emergency room admittances
of teenagers because of marijuana has gone up 176 percent since 1994.

At a news conference to announce the new campaign, John Walters, director
of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, was interrupted
by demonstrators in favor of legalizing marijuana. They claimed that there
is no evidence that anti-drug messages diminish young people's interest in
drugs and that thousands of people are wasting their lives in prison for
using or selling marijuana.

As two men from a group called Common Sense for Drug Policy were ejected
from the news conference by Secret Service agents, Mr. Walters said that
there has been "intimidation" and "an effort to silence" the message that
marijuana is dangerous.

Legalizing small amounts of marijuana is on the ballot this November in
Nevada, and Mr. Walters said he will make three trips out there before
voters go to the polls in an effort to try to defeat the proposal. Question
9 asks Nevadans to vote on whether to permit adults to possess up to three
ounces of marijuana without facing criminal penalties.

Ohio, Michigan, and Arizona voters will consider reducing penalties for
marijuana or permitting it for medical use. It also may be on the ballot in
the District of Columbia.

In 1996, California voters approved the use of marijuana for medical
purposes in controlling pain, but federal Drug Enforcement Agency agents
say it is a violation of federal law and routinely raid medical marijuana
clinics.

Some form of medical marijuana approval is also on the books in Alaska,
Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. A recent
study for the Canadian Senate argues that prison cells are being filled
with marijuana users and that it's time to legalize it. Mr. Walters said he
knows about the report but that he met with the Canadian health and justice
ministers and they don't agree.

The DEA argues that there is no "good science" that proves marijuana is
helpful in easing pain but that there's plenty of evidence that it is an
"entry" or "gateway" drug that may lead to use of such drugs as cocaine and
heroin, that it can cause dangerous driving and unprotected sex, and that
it causes long-term changes in the brain and the lungs.

Supporters of marijuana argue that used properly and grown without
additives, it alleviates pain for some patients dealing with serious pain
such as that caused by cancer, and that it can be used safely.

The Drug Policy Alliance argues that 54 percent of high school seniors
experiment with illegal drugs at some point despite anti-drug ad campaigns
and that telling teens to "just say no" does little good.

Dr. Carmona, confirmed as surgeon general six weeks ago and making this his
first campaign, disagrees. He argues that the first step is to convince
parents that marijuana "is not a rite of passage, but a dangerous behavior
that could have serious health consequences. Parents must realize that what
they tell their children about drug use makes a difference. There's good
science behind what I'm saying."

Mr. Walters said that teenagers are getting the wrong message about
marijuana from peer pressure and that they believe it's widely used by
adults who purposefully exaggerate the danger to their children. He says
there has to be a national groundswell of opposition to marijuana,
especially because more potent forms of marijuana are coming on the market.

The opponents of marijuana have the support of the American Medical
Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, National Medical Association,
and 14 other national groups such as the National PTA.