Officials Denounce Marijuana Initiative

Calling Proposition 215 a “cruel hoax being played on the citizens of California,” federal drug czar Barry R. McCaffrey led a group of politicians and law enforcement officials in a denunciation of the medical marijuana initiative Tuesday morning at the Phoenix Academy.

With dozens of students and teachers of the residential school for adolescent drug abusers looking on, McCaffrey called the proposition a “Cheech and Chong approach to public policy.”

“This is not about passionately caring for the terminally ill,” McCaffrey said. “How dare [215 sponsors] capitalize on the suffering of victims of cancer and AIDS, who deserve the best American medical care?”

McCaffrey also released a letter signed by former presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and George Bush, urging California voters to reject the proposition.

The measure would allow doctors to give patients suffering from virtually any malady a written or verbal recommendation to cultivate and use marijuana.

Backers say the measure is necessary to decriminalize the most effective form of relief for patients suffering from nausea caused by cancer, chemotherapy, AIDS and glaucoma.

But law enforcement and elected officials who attended the press conference--including California Lt. Gov. Gray Davis, Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block and Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti--strongly rejected that claim.

“This is not an issue that should be decided by ballot, it should be decided by good science,” Davis said. “We simply need to look to the medical community for advice, and they have spoken against it.”

Opponents also argue that Proposition 215 would set a dangerous precedent during a time of increased drug use among adolescents.

“There is a misconception that marijuana is not a dangerous drug,” said Chris Policano, communications director at Phoenix Academy. Policano cited a poll of the program’s students in which 75% said they used marijuana regularly prior to entering the program.

Susan Godbey, a 15-year-old Phoenix student, also opposes the proposition--and smoking marijuana.

” . . .I’ve gotten back my self-esteem, my imagination and my motivation since I stopped,” she said.