Once Again the Federal Drug Agents are Going After the Terminally Ill

On Feb.  12, the same day that President Bush issued his National Drug Control Strategy, agents from the U.S.  Drug Enforcement Administration raided the Harm Reduction Center, a medical marijuana club in San Francisco.

The agents arrested three employees of the club, issued a warrant for the arrest of a fourth and closed down the clinic, The clinic supplied medical marijuana for approximately 200 cancer and AIDS patients daily.

Bush's strategy calls for the creation of a new climate of "compassionate coercion" for drug users.  There's nothing compassionate about stripping the seriously ill of the relief provided by medical marijuana.

In October, 30 DEA agents raided and closed the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Center, southern California's largest medical marijuana dispensary which served more than 1,000 patients.

More than five years ago, 70 percent of California's voters passed Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act, which allows for the use of medical cannabis to alleviate pain, to increast appetite, and to control vomiting, in patients suffering from serious illnesses.

Porposition 215, was passed in order to ensure that "seriously ill Californians have the right to obtain and use marijuana for medical purposes where that medical use is deemed appropriate and has been recommended by a physician who has determined that the person's health would benefit from the use of marijuana in the treatment of cancer, anorexia, AIDS, chronic pain, spasticity, glaucoma, arthritis, migraine, or any other illness for which marijuana provides relief".

The act was to "encourage the federal and state governments to implement a plan to provide for the safe and affordable distribution of marijuana to all patients in medical need of marijuana." The state did its part by creating cannabis clinics for its distribution to those under a doctor's care and had obtained a medical recommendation for the use of marijuana.

Proposition 215 does not legalize marijuana.  It simply allows the use of cannabis by those for whom it would provide medical relief, but only upon the recommendation of a doctor.

SInce 1996.  eight other states have adopted laws that permit the use of marijuana for medical use; Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.

State, county and city officials are sworn to uphold state law.  And, for the most part, in California, elected and appointed officials have stood firm in upholding a law that a vast majority of voters passed.

According to news reports, San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan drew cheers from the protesters who had gathered outside the San Francisco hall where the new DEA chief, Asa Hutchinson, spoke the evening after the raid.  "The voters should be outraged," said Hallinan.  "This is the federal government trying to make a point in opposition to the voters of California."

City supervisor of San Francisco Mark Leno called the DEA action "a direct assault on the public health of San Francisco as well as a direct assault on the voters of California."

However, according to the Controlled Substances Act of 1970.  marijuana is a Schedule One drug that has no currently accepted medical value and a high potential for abuse.  The act prohibits the use of Schedule One drugs, including heroin, LSD, cocaine, ecstasy and methaqualone.

In contrast to the 30 year old Controlled Substances Act, in 1999, the Nationa Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine issued a report that stated: "Scientific data indicate the potential therapeutic value of cannabinoid drugs..for pain relief, control of nausea and vomiting, and appetite stimulation.  Except for the harms associated with smoking, the adverse effects of marijuana use are within the range tolerated for other medications."

States' rights is an issue here that will eventually be settled in the courts or if and when Congress has the collective wisdom to move marijuana from a Schedule One drug to a Schedule Two drug.  Schedule Two drugs are federally regulated, but their use can be authorized by physicians.

During the Clinto administraion, the DEA went directly after California patients, charging two AIDS sufferers, who are allowed to grow their own cannabis plants for personal use under Proposition 215, with conspiracy to distrbute marijuana,

One patient who had been doing will, author Peter McWilliams, died as a result of the government's action.  The DEA also threatened to revoke the medial licenses of physicians who recommended medical marijuana to patients.

Under Hutchinson, federal drug agents have continued the federal government's war against this specific and narrow use of cannabis and against state voters who have shown compassion for those suffering from painful terminal illnesses.

Cocaine, heroin and methamphetamines should be the target of the drug war, not the medical use of marijuana.  Using federal resources to withhold pain relief from those who are seriously ill is an ill-advised public policy.

Responding to her question about medical marijuana in an interview last year with Margaret Warner of NewsHour, Hutchinson said, "You know, we want to deal with this carefully and thoughtfully and so we're working out exactly how this should be dealt with from a law enforcement standpoint."

Unfortunately, there's nothing thoughtful about the approach the DEA chief has taken.  It is blunt force without regard to compassion---comparable to stealing water from dehydrated, dying people. 

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