FEDS WAGE WAR ON THE SICK

NEW YORK -- Last Monday, the FBI warned that "a planned attack may occur in
the United States or against U.S. interests on or around Feb. 12," thanks
to 12 terrorists led by Fawaz Yahya al-Rabeei, a Saudi-born Yemeni.

Suspecting this, federal officials should have deployed as many agents as
possible to protect high-profile targets such as San Francisco's Golden
Gate Bridge or the pyramidal Transamerica Tower.

Think again. Washington instead chose Feb. 12 to unleash gun-toting Drug
Enforcement Agency officers against AIDS and cancer patients. These federal
agents raided a suspected cannabis cultivation center in Petaluma, Calif.,
and medical marijuana dispensaries in San Francisco and Oakland.

This unjust and ill-timed operation epitomizes the Bush administration's
new effort to repackage the War on Drugs within the War on Terror.

"If you're buying illegal drugs in America, it is likely that money is
going to end up in the hands of terrorist organizations," President Bush
declared Feb. 12.

His point is not without merit when it comes to cocaine, some of whose
proceeds reach Colombia's Marxist FARC guerrillas. Likewise, the Taliban
profited from heroin and opium smuggling.

That said, one has to smoke something pretty strong to conclude that
someone who uses marijuana to fight life-threatening AIDS wasting syndrome
somehow is in cahoots with al-Qaida.

The Sixth Street Harm Reduction Center, a facility the DEA crushed Feb. 12,
served some 200 people enduring AIDS, cancer, Lou Gehrig's disease and
other serious illnesses.

Three of the center's associates face between five and 40 years in federal
prison. Compare these staggering potential terms to the actual penalties
two men received Jan. 31 for unwittingly helping 9-11 hijackers Abdulaziz
Alomari and Ahmed Alghamdi secure bogus Virginia ID cards.

Victor Lopez-Flores got 27 months in prison while Herbert Villalobos earned
a four-month sentence. His previous 18 weeks in custody earned his
immediate release.

The Bay Area clampdown recalls the DEA's Oct. 25 closure of the Los Angeles
Cannabis Resource Center. It operated with the blessing of West Hollywood
officials and the L.A. County sheriff, all elected authorities. That was
not enough to keep 30 DEA agents from yanking 400 marijuana plants from its
premises along with computers and the medical records of its 960 patients.

Until the Feds intervened, these outfits operated legally.

Fifty-six percent of California voters approved Proposition 215, a medical
marijuana measure, in 1996. Initiatives also have legalized medipot in
Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Maine, Oregon, Nevada and Washington. While the
U.S. Supreme Court ruled last May that therapeutic grass suppliers cannot
assert marijuana's "medical necessity" to avoid federal drug laws, it did
not address the validity of state statutes permitting clinical cannabis.

The FBI reports that 734,498 Americans were arrested for marijuana
violations in 2000. Nearly 88 percent of them -- precisely 646,042 -- were
arrested for mere possession.

As the U.S. confronts budget deficits and a growing surplus of enemies
dedicated to America's destruction, Washington must rearrange its
priorities. Neither cancer patients nor classic rockers who use marijuana
will murder another 3,000 innocent civilians in cold blood.

Every federal agent who stops pot smokers from lighting up is one less
agent who can prevent Americans from blowing up.