DEA'S EFFORT AGAINST MEDICAL POT IS MISPLACED

Asa Hutchinson, the former Republican representative from Arkansas now
serving as head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, has a reputation as
a straight shooter. When he was up for confirmation a few months ago, even
Democrats who had strongly opposed his views as a manager of the
impeachment proceedings against Bill Clinton testified in support of his
nomination.

The other morning, Hutchinson was the guest at one of the breakfast
interviews arranged by Godfrey Sperling Jr. of The Christian Science
Monitor. Asked what the events of Sept. 11 had done to the war on drugs,
Hutchinson readily admitted that the diversion of government resources to
the anti-terrorism campaign had left his agency stretched thin.

A significant number of FBI agents who had been working drug cases have
been pulled off to assist in the dragnet for suspected terrorists, he said.
Coast Guard vessels that had been patrolling the Caribbean to intercept
drug smugglers are now protecting harbors. Customs agents are focusing on
bioterrorism.

Hutchinson assured reporters that he agreed with the new priorities but
acknowledged that the DEA is struggling to "pick up the slack." All of
which makes it very strange, in my view, that on Oct. 25 about 30 DEA
agents spent six hours in a raid on the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource
Center, a source of marijuana for patients with doctors' prescriptions for
its use as a painkiller.

There was nothing illegal about the raid. The agents had a search warrant
signed by a visiting federal judge from Florida. Scott Imler, the president
of the center, told me the agents "were very polite. They did not pull guns
or put anyone on the floor or handcuff anyone, or physically or verbally
abuse anyone. They just gathered us together and went about collecting
stuff." They took marijuana plants, processed marijuana, 3,000 medical
records and all the business documents on the site. The next day, Imler
said, they seized the organization's bank accounts, effectively shutting
down its normal operations. In turn, Imler and his staff did not try to
conceal anything; in fact, they opened the safe and allowed the agents to
take away the contents. This was no clandestine operation.

Five years ago, when California voters overwhelmingly approved a medical
marijuana initiative financed by George Soros and two other
multimillionaires, Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block and officials
of West Hollywood encouraged Imler and his associates to set up operations,
even finding a building they could use.

John Duran, the center's attorney and a city councilman, said the
organization has worked hand-in-glove with local officials, acceding to
requests that patients' status be verified every three months and that they
carry ID cards attesting to their eligibility to possess marijuana.

"We've had nothing to hide for five years," Duran said. Indeed, DEA agents
visited the center on Sept. 17 and were given a tour of the premises and a
full explanation of its operations.

The authority for the raid rests on a Supreme Court decision in May that
the passage of medical marijuana initiatives in California and seven other
states does not override federal law classifying marijuana as an illegal
drug. The question raised by Imler, Duran, civil-liberties attorneys and
even some conservative editorial pages is why such a raid would command the
resources of the DEA at a time when it is clearly being stretched to the
limits.

When I asked Hutchinson, he replied that carrying out the federal marijuana
ban "is our responsibility, but not a high priority." He acknowledged that
he prefers to work with elected officials and local law enforcement, rather
than opposing them, as in this case, but said that "when there is a gap"
between state and federal law, his job is to enforce the congressional
statutes.

That answer does not satisfy local officials. At the time of the raid, 960
people -- most of them with AIDS, the rest with cancer, Lou Gehrig's
disease and other serious illnesses -- were alleviating pain and nausea
with marijuana from Imler's center. No arrest warrants have been issued
since the raid, and a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office told me it
will be "some time" before any prosecutions are decided. But the center has
closed its dispensary because, as Imler said, "we do not want to distribute
black market products." Now, Duran added, "we have 960 patients out in the
parks, looking for drug dealers to get their marijuana, which is exactly
what the city didn't want."

No one has alleged -- let alone proved -- that anyone got marijuana without
a medical prescription. Why in the world is the Bush administration
fighting this battle, when there are so many more important wars to be won?