MEDICAL MARIJUANA: FEDS SHOULD STOP THEIR ATTACK, LISTEN TO PEOPLE

Today hundreds of people suffering from AIDS, cancer, multiple
sclerosis and other terrible illnesses, along with their families,
friends and supporters, peacefully protested at dozens of Drug
Enforcement Administration offices around the country. They came with
one simple request: Stop trying to take away our medicine.

As District Attorney of San Francisco, I support their effort, and I
implore the DEA to stop its attack on the medical use of marijuana.

In 1996, 56 percent of California voters -- some five million people
- -- endorsed legalizing medical marijuana by voting yes on Proposition
215. In my city the yes vote was 80 percent. The measure even carried
Orange County, one of the most conservative areas of the state. Since
then, seven other states have adopted similar laws, six of them by
votes of the people.

George W. Bush recognized that public sentiment during his 2000
presidential campaign. He told the Dallas Morning News that, while he
was personally opposed to medical marijuana, he believed states should
be able to decide the issue "as they so choose."

As president, however, Mr. Bush has taken a different course. Justice
Department lawyers -- continuing a Clinton administration policy --
have argued in federal court that the government has the right to take
away the prescribing rights of doctors who recommend marijuana to
patients. In other words, the administration believes that politicians
and bureaucrats should be able to dictate to your doctor what advice
he or she can give you.

Armed DEA agents have raided medical marijuana dispensaries operating
legally under state law in San Francisco, Los Angeles and El Dorado
counties, seizing patient records and sending waves of fear up and
down California. Some of these facilities have been forced to close
permanently.

These raids do not help local law enforcement or protect the public
health or safety. Instead, they endanger our most vulnerable citizens
and make my job as District Attorney more difficult.

From a law enforcement perspective, Proposition 215 has been
implemented successfully in San Francisco. It has reduced crime as
well as the costs associated with arrest, prosecution and
incarceration. It contributes to public health and safety.

Our Department of Public Health has established a system of
identification cards that protects patient confidentiality while
helping law enforcement identify documented medical marijuana
patients. Nonprofit medical marijuana dispensaries have become an
important part of this system, providing a safe, quality-controlled
supply of medicinal cannabis to seriously ill people and working
closely with local law enforcement and public health officials. Many
also function as support groups for people who often are very, very
ill.

But it is precisely these dispensaries that the DEA has raided.
Patients and their caregivers have been calling my office asking for
reassurance that their access to a medicine they rely on will not be
denied -- reassurance I would like to be able to give them, but
cannot. At any moment the DEA could stage more raids, depriving sick
people of their medicine or forcing them to turn to street drug
dealers instead of safe, supportive providers.

I hope the DEA, the Justice Department and the entire Bush
administration will heed the "Cease and Desist" orders delivered by
yesterday's protesters. Surely at a time when we face so many real
threats -- like the senders of anthrax-laced letters who still have
not been caught -- the federal government has better things to do than
to deprive sick people of their medicine.