THE NEW YORK TIMES "National Report"

Sunday, November 17, 1996

VOTES ON MARIJUANA ARE STIRRING DEBATE

by Christopher S. Wren

By approving initiatives to permit the use of marijuana for medical purpose, California and Arizona voters have touched off a nationwide battle between Americans who want to hold the line against illegal

drugs and those who think it is time to challenge other longstanding prohibitions against drugs. Passions are fierce on both sides, and the votes have stirred a dialogue about drugs and the potential, or risk,

of broader policy changes. The initiatives are probably the first time

since the repeal of Prohibition that the public has approved a pullback in the war on drugs, said Ethan Nadelmann, director of the Lindesmith Center, a policy institute in New York that promotes more tolerant drug policies. "It was made clear that the public was ahead of the politicians on this," said Mr. Nadelmann, a strategist for the referendums. "The public is increasingly cynical and jaundiced about drug war politicking."

But opponents are striking back. Community Anti-drug Coalitions of America brought 1,000 leaders of its local chapters to Washington last week and discussed how to prevent initiatives on the medical use of marijuana from reaching the ballot in other states. Organizers of the California referendum have promised to get such measures on other ballots. On Friday, the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, Barry R. McCaffery, declared that the referendums in California and Arizona are now a national concern. "Just when the nation is trying its hardest to educate teen-agers not to use psychoactive drugs," Mr. McCaffrey said, "now they are being told that marijuana and other drugs are good, they are medicine. The conflict in messages is extremely harmful." Proponents portrayed the referendum as acts of compassion meant to help the chronically or terminally ill by letting them use an illegal drug to ease pain, relieve nausea from cancer treatment or otherwise alleviate their condition. "

I lost my lover, Jonathan West, from AIDS at 29, and I dedicated myself to the suffering that he endured," said Dennis Peron, the originator of Proposition 215, as the California initiative was called. Critics contend that in passing

the referendums on Nov. 5 by votes of nearly 56 percent to 44 percent in California and 65 to 35 percent in Arizona, voters were tricked into approving measures that pave the way for broader use of marijuana. "The California proposition was a wolf dressed in sheep's clothing," said James E. Copple, the president of Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America. "they're using the AIDS victims and terminally ill as props to promote the use of marijuana." Mr. Copple said many members of his group had found themselves in an awkward position because of their sympathy for people with AIDS. "It's a brilliant diversionary tactic," Mr. Copple said, "but we're going to oppose it, punch through it." Coalition members visited their representative on Capitol Hill on Thursday while prosecutors and lawenforcement officials from California and Arizona met in Mr. McCaffery's office to seek guidance from him, from Thomas A. Constantine, the director of the Drug Enforcement Administration, and from officials of the Department of

Justice, Education, and Health and Human Services. "I think we recognize what the implications are," Mr. Constantine said later. "We don't yet know what are the solutions." He said Federal officials would work with legal advisers on a strategy. But he said, "Anyone who thinks for one second that we're making a step backward on the application of Federal law would be making a very mistake." Richard M. Romley, the District Attorney of Maricopa County, Ariz., who met with Mr. McCaffrey, said "the biggest question is the conflict that many exist with Federal Law" banning the use of illegal drugs. He expressed fear that someone whose marijuana had been confiscated could sue, claiming that he had been deprived of medication. The referendum' successes have encouraged those who want to broaden the debate about illegal drugs. At a meeting in New York City on Thursday night, Joycelyn Elders, the former Surgeon General, was applauded when she said, " I think that we can really legalize marijuana, make marijuana legal."

Mr. Peron, who lives in San Francisco, contended that since stress relief is a medical purpose, too, any adult who uses marijuana does so for medical reasons. "I believe all marijuana use is medical - except for kids," Mr. Peron said. But Mr. Nadelmann said legalizing marijuana was not an immediate goal of the initiatives' promoters because a survey showed that half of those who voted in favor of the California referendum did so because they supported marijuana's availability for medical uses and not its outright legalization of illicit drugs. "The next step is toward arguing for a more rational drug policy," Mr. Nadelmann said. That includes making hypodermic needles available to stop the spread of AIDS among addicts sharing needles; increasing access to methadone, the heroin substitute, and reversing mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenders. The referendum in Arizona went further than California's. it stipulates that any prohibited drug, not just marijuana, may be prescribed with the concurrence of

two doctors. And it provides that people charged for the first time with possession of illegal drugs be given probation and treatment, not sent to jail. California's referendum says people need only the recommendation of a doctor to use marijuana, but it does not let doctors prescribe it. It sets no minimum age for the patient. Its backers deny that the vague wording invites abuse. "The first thing this doesn't do is create some sort of supply system." said Dave Fratello, communications director of the California referendum campaign. "It gives a specific defense to a small group of people that is subject to scrutiny in court. That is why we feel it can't be easily abused." But opponents argue that the wrong signals have been sent. "What you've got now is an enormously high-risk experiment, which I'm concerned is going to be detrimental to our drug prevention efforts in California," said Andrew M. Mecca, director of the California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs. Marc Burgat, the legislative director

of Calpartners, a California substance abuse coalition based in Sacramento, said some adolescents assumed they could smoke marijuana now without getting punished. "The word that we hear in Sacramento schools from kids is, `Gee, now I can grow it legally, and get doctors to prescribe it,'" mr. Burgat said. And some adults, Mr. Burgat said, could try to use the measure as a legal defense if they tested positive for marijuana at work or were pulled over for driving while intoxicated. "They can say, `My doctor told me I needed to use this.'" he said. in the first few days after the vote, a toll-free information line in California attracted more than 1,000 calls. "We have people calling and saying, `Where do I get it?'" Mr. Fratello said. Mr. Peron said people with illnesses were forming clubs and designating someone to grow marijuana. But the next stage of the debate over the medical use of marijuana seems destined to be in the courts since both sides have vowed to press litigation to buttress their cases.