Pubdate: Wed, 31 Oct 2001
Source: New York Times
(NY)
Copyright: 2001 The New York Times Company
Contact: letters@nytimes.comWebsite: http://www.nytimes.com/Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298Author: Greg
Winter
Related: Medical Marijuana Center In Mourning
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1842/a06.htmlBookmarks: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis -
Medicinal)
http://www.mapinc.org/ocbc.htm (Oakland Cannabis
Court Case)
http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis -
California)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."