DEA BOSS, AUDIENCE CLASH OVER POT

San Francisco CA (AP)-"Liar! Liar!" Came the voices from the crowd.

Drug Enforcement Agency Adminstrator Asa Hutchinson stopped short, caught
midsentence. He had started by saying: "Science has told us so far there
is no medical benefit for smoking marijuana..."

Hutchinson pushed on with his message, reiterating President Bush's newly
aggressive anti-drug use to terrorism and objects to state laws like
California's that allow the medicainal use of marijuana.

Just hours before Hitchinson's appearance Feb. 12, federal agents, with no
help from San Francisco police, seized more that 600 pot plants from a
medicinal marijuana club. They also arrested the group's executive
director and three suppliers, including pot guru Ed Rosenthal, author of
"Ask Ed: Marijuana Law, Don't Get Busted."

The federal raids have angered and alarmed local officials in San Francisco.

On the day Hutchinson spoke, a half-dozen city officials joined a
boisterous street protest against the DEA. Even District Attorney Terence
Hallinan grabbed a bullhorn and criticized the raids, as demonstrators,
some in wheelchairs and on crutches, chanted, "DEA( Go away!" and pot smoke
wafted through the air.

Opponents of Washington's stand on marijuana said the raids may be a
precursor to showdowns in at least seven other states that have also passed
laws in conflict with the federal ban on pot.