War on the Sick

by Suzanne Wills, Drug Policy Chair

suzy@dpft.org

While the country struggles with an enormous fiscal deficit and status orange threat alerts, the Department of Justice is waging war on the sick and dying who use marijuana to ease their suffering. Only about 1% of California's 3 million marijuana users are medical patients, but medical cases account for 50% of all federal marijuana cases filed in the U.S. district court in San Francisco this year. Medical use of marijuana has been legal under California law since 1996.

This summer the Drug Enforcement Agency has destroyed at least a dozen gardens belonging to patients and their caregivers including the Geneses dispensary in Petaluma, Shelter from the Storm in San Diego and a six plant garden belonging to cancer patient Diane Monson of Oroville, CA. On September 5, DEA agents woke patients at the Wo/Mens Alliance for Medical Marijuana (WAMM) outside Santa Cruz wearing riot gear and armed with M-16s. They screamed at polio patient Suzanne Pfeil to stand up even though her leg braces and crutches were clearly visible beside her bed. They refused to call for medical help when her blood pressure spiked and she felt chest pains. Instead agents handcuffed the patients, including Suzanne Pfeil in her bed, and cut down about 150 plants with chainsaws. WAMM is a non-profit collective of about 250 patients, all seriously ill, who take turns tending the garden and caring for each other. Co-op managers work closely with the Santa Cruz County sheriff to ensure that the operation is law-abiding. The director, Valerie Corral, a head injury patient, is a member the California Attorney General Bill Lockyer’s medical marijuana policy task force.

Mr. Lockyer condemned the Santa Cruz raid as a waste of law enforcement resources, a cruel step against a group that presents no danger to the public and a slap at California's voters. He requested a meeting with DEA Director Asa Hutchinson and Attorney General John Ashcroft to discuss the raids. He was not given a meeting, but did receive a reply from Asa Htuchinson. The DEA will continue to raid marijuana operations and will refuse to recognize any distinction between medical marijuana and marijuana for personal use.

Study after study has supported the efficacy of cannabis for medical purposes. DEA Administrative Judge Francis Young has referred to cannabis as "the safest therapeutic agent known to man." In 1998 the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy commissioned a study by the Institute of Medicine. The IOM’s report said in part, "The accumulated data indicate a potential therapeutic value for cannabinoid drugs, particularly for symptoms such as pain relief, control of nausea and vomiting, and appetite stimulation…. For patients such as those with AIDS or who are undergoing chemotherapy ... cannabinoid drugs might offer broad-spectrum relief not found in any other single medication."

The hugely expensive television ads that the White House Office of Drug Control Policy is currently running at taxpayer expense show a family supposedly murdered by black market marijuana dealers. Every raid on a peaceful medical marijuana supplier working within state law creates customers for just such dealers.