WASHINGTON'S WAR. . . ON THE SICK?

February 17, 2002 -- 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 dedicated,
talented agents as possible to protect high-profile targets such as San
Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman's Wharf or the pyramidal
Transamerica Tower.

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

This unjust, outrageous and ill-timed misallocation of law-enforcement
resources 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 Qaeda.

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. They now must buy their cannabis through illegal
drug dealers, or simply watch themselves deteriorate and die.

Three of the center's associates face five to 40 years in federal prison.
Officials say James Halloran, 61, grew more than 1,000 marijuana plants in
Oakland. That could cost him 10 years to life behind bars.

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.

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 spending six hours yanking 400
marijuana plants from its premises along with computers, documents 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 seven other
states. 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.

Federal heavy-handedness has made drug decriminalizers rail against DEA
chief and former GOP Rep. Asa Hutchinson. As the Drug Policy Alliance's
Glenn Backes says: "You have an appointed official, a career politician
from Arkansas, who sits in Washington, D.C. and tells the voters of
California and the other seven states that have supported medical
marijuana: 'It doesn't matter what you vote for. I have your tax dollars
and I'm going to spend them going after sick people.' "

Of course, drug warriors like Hutchinson target healthy pot smokers, too.
The FBI reports that 734,498 Americans were arrested for marijuana
violations in 2000. Nearly 88 percent of these individuals - 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.