HIDE THE BONG!

Congressional watchdogs are sniffing around Oregon's medical-marijuana program.

Investigators from the U.S. General Accounting Office visited the state
last month to interview administrators and law-enforcement officials and
compile demographic data about cardholders and physicians.

The inquiry was prompted by the House Subcommittee on Criminal Justice,
Drug Policy and Human Resources, which directed the GAO--the investigative
agency of the U.S. Congress--to evaluate state medical-marijuana programs.

Oregon officials stressed that the information they released to the GAO was
"de-identified" and did not include individual names."We protected patient
and physician confidentiality," says Mary Leverette, acting program manager
of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program, which is administered by the state
Department of Human Services. "We would never disclose records, even if we
got a subpoena."

After conferring with state lawyers, Leverette and the state's health
officer, Dr. Grant Higginson, released a list of unnamed cardholders broken
down by age, gender, county of residence and medical condition. Data from
small counties was combined to further protect client confidentiality.

The GAO investigation does not appear to be related to a recent series of
raids on cannabis clubs in California, which were carried out by federal
agents from the Drug Enforcement Agency. DEA agents made arrests and hauled
away plants, even though the clubs were in compliance with California's
medical-marijuana law, known as Proposition 215.

But local cardholders still have reason to be nervous. An unfavorable
review by the GAO could trigger a federal crackdown on medical-marijuana
programs. "I'll bet you 10 bucks this is a fishing expedition," says Bruce
Mirken, a spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, a Washington,
D.C.-based advocacy group. Mirken describes the chairman of the
subcommittee, Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.), as "one of the most rabid
anti-drug warriors in Congress."

Approved by Oregon voters in 1998, the Medical Marijuana Act allows
patients and their caregivers to possess and grow marijuana for medical
purposes. Since then, the state has received 4,003 applications and issued
3,580 cards. There are currently 1,700 cardholders, some of whom rely on an
estimated 800 caregivers for their marijuana.

In 1999, the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine released a
groundbreaking study concluding that marijuana does have medical uses (see
www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/marimed).

The GAO declined to comment on when the report will be issued.