FEDS TERRORIZE CANNABIS COMMUNITY

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 garden in suburban Petaluma,
Calif., and purported medical marijuana dispensaries in San Francisco and
Oakland. They arrested four men who led these operations.

This unjust 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. Of course, the War on
Drugs relegates these products to the black market, where shady characters
dwell, rather than the sunshine of free trade.

That said, one has to smoke something pretty strong to conclude that
someone who uses marijuana to fight side-effects of 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.

Three of the center's associates face between five and 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 help ing 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 spending six hours yank ing 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 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. Federal heavy-handedness has made
drug decriminalizers rail against DEA chief and former GOP congressman 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 can cer patients nor classic rockers who use marijuana
will murder another 3,000 inno cent 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.