U.S. CRACKS DOWN ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA IN CALIFORNIA

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 30 -- Armed with a favorable ruling from the Supreme
Court, the Bush administration has begun its first major crackdown on the
distribution of marijuana for medical purposes, Justice Department
officials say.

In the last month, federal agents in California have uprooted a marijuana
garden run by patients, seized the files of a doctor and lawyer who
recommended the drug for thousands of sick clients and raided one of the
state's largest cannabis clubs, in West Hollywood, where more than 900
people with ailments like cancer and AIDS bought the drug with the blessing
of city officials.

The sudden rush of enforcement, coming three years after the last federal
raid on a "medical marijuana" club in Oakland, represents the Justice
Department's renewed attempt to impose federal drug laws in states that
have legalized marijuana use for people who are sick or dying.

Basing its efforts on a unanimous Supreme Court decision last May, which
effectively rendered the distribution of marijuana through large
cooperatives illegal, the Justice Department said that more actions would
probably follow, despite its current focus on fighting terrorism.

"The recent enforcement is indicative that we have not lost our priorities
in other areas since Sept. 11," said Susan Dryden, a spokeswoman for the
department.

"The attorney general and the administration have been very clear: We will
be aggressive," Ms. Dryden said, adding that the department did not
differentiate between medical marijuana and other illegal drugs.

The recent raids have enraged local officials, who not only support medical
marijuana clubs but also sometimes help to set them up. The City of West
Hollywood, for example, co-signed the mortgage for the Los Angeles Cannabis
Resource Center that was raided last week and helped to get the club listed
as a member of the local chamber of commerce.

"This was a serious effort to provide relief for people who were ill," said
Steve Martin, a councilman in West Hollywood. "The Bush administration is
forcing sick people to become criminals."

Some medical professionals are equally concerned about the recent seizure
of medical records and legal files from a doctor and her husband, a lawyer,
who run a clinic of sorts in Cool, northeast of Sacramento. The pair,
federal agents say, coached their patients how to evade arrest and supplied
them with marijuana grown in their home and a greenhouse out back.

"Federal and state law enforcement authorities have no business interfering
with the doctor-patient relationship," said Peter Warren, a spokesman for
the California Medical Association, which supports using medical marijuana
when other treatments have failed. "It's especially shocking in this time
of national crisis that federal agents are out there tossing doctor's offices."

Federal officials did not specify why they have focused their efforts on
California, as opposed to seven other states that have passed similar
initiatives, saying they did not want to compromise investigations taking
place elsewhere.

Some of those investigations, federal officials acknowledge, may be taking
longer than anticipated, in part because the interest in cracking down on
distributors of medical marijuana is not equally shared throughout the
Justice Department.

Still, local politicians and advocates argue that California is a natural
target for enforcement, since it has far more marijuana clubs than other
states, with many more patients buying from them.

The recent enforcement actions have not yet resulted in any criminal
charges, which would give rise to jury trials. In the past, the Justice
Department has sought injunctions from judges, rather than face jurors who
might be sympathetic to the idea of supplying those suffering from
debilitating or terminal illnesses with marijuana. In a nationwide poll in
March by the Pew Research Center, 73 percent of respondents said they
supported allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana.

Justice Department officials said criminal charges might be forthcoming,
and certainly were a part of their policy to thwart the illegal
distribution of drugs, including medical marijuana. Even short of bringing
charges, though, the recent enforcement actions have had their impact. Left
without medical records to verify legitimate patients and, perhaps most
important, devoid of any marijuana to pass out, the cannabis club in West
Hollywood, for example, is effectively shut down.

In response, advocates of medical marijuana say they are looking at ways of
bringing states directly into the business of distributing the drug,
something the Supreme Court ruling did not specifically prohibit.

The constitutional amendment that legalized medical marijuana in Nevada
last year, for instance, specified that the state must make sure that
patients there can obtain the drug legally. As a result, the state is
asking the federal government to supply it with marijuana for those in
need, providing a model that advocates would like to duplicate in future
ballot measures.

"If these initiatives passed, then how would the administration enforce
federal law? By arresting the governor?" asked Bill Zimmerman, executive
director of the Campaign for New Drug Policies, which helped draft the
eight medical marijuana measures that have passed. "It would produce too
much of a crisis."