ASHCROFT PICKS WRONG WAR

Attorney General John Ashcroft took time out this week from putting the FBI
on a "wartime footing" to score some points with religious conservatives.
He used a Supreme Court decision on the medical use of marijuana to attack
Oregon's hard-fought Death With Dignity law. Apparently, reorganizing the
FBI is less of a diversion for the attorney general than it might seem.

Tuesday, Mr. Ashcroft notified the Drug Enforcement Administration that
physicians should lose their license to prescribe lethal drugs if they give
them to terminally ill people. Under Oregon's law, a mentally competent
person with just six months to live can decide to end his or her life and
obtain a doctor's prescription to do it. Mr. Ashcroft contends that
prescribing such drugs to help a person die is not a "legitimate medical
purpose."

In May, the Supreme Court ruled 8-0 that marijuana's inclusion as a
Schedule 1 drug under the federal Controlled Substances Act means it has no
accepted medical use. The decision did not rule out the use of the drug for
medical purposes, but it did mean that federal regulators could shut down
the collectives that distribute it. Last month, agents searched the Los
Angeles Cannabis Resource Center and seized computers, financial documents,
400 marijuana plants and 3,000 medical records. Last week, District
Attorney Terence Hallinan asked DEA Administrator Asa Hutchinson to rethink
the agency's policy.

After Mr. Ashcroft showed his disdain for states' rights -- a Republican
principle that Republicans seem to cherish only when it suits their purpose
- -- Oregon officials sued, arguing that the federal government does not have
the right to dictate policies on medical practices. Democratic Gov. John
Kitzhaber, a physician, called it "a slap in the face to Oregonians." On
Thursday, U.S. District Judge Robert Jones blocked the order until a Nov.
20 hearing. For now, physicians can prescribe lethal medicines, but many
will hold off until the issue is resolved. The action also will cause
doctors nationwide to be hesitant about prescribing strong pain medicine.
That will increase suffering.

Congress has not held the needed debate on physician-assisted suicide.
Meanwhile, Oregon voters approved their law twice, first in 1994, then by a
wide margin in 1997 after it survived legal challenges. Mr. Ashcroft has
declared war on the law simply because he doesn't like it. In his spare
time, perhaps he can get the FBI to find out who put anthrax in the mail.