Lungren may have failed to purge the comic pages, but he managed to draw attention to a little-noticed initiative with national implications–an issue the anti-drug warriors seem to be losing. With the proposition leading in the polls, President Clinton’s drug czar, former general Barry McCaffrey, has made several trips to California to plot strategy with Proposition 215’s opponents. ““Every pothead in America will want to move there’’ if the measure passes, says Don Maple, a senior McCaffrey aide. Prop 215 doesn’t limit the amount of marijuana an individual can grow or smoke and requires only oral permission from a doctor to obtain the narcotic. Presumably, a qualified patient could legally get pot anywhere. But proponents say that marijuana provides precious relief from the nausea and pain of chemotherapy and potent AIDS drugs and is worth the risk that people will abuse the law. ““It’s like denying penicillin,’’ says Noel Haas, who used to buy marijuana for her cancer-ridden son at the Cannabis Buyers’ Club, an underground San Francisco group. In August, Lungren closed it down.
That kind of get-tough maneuver isn’t very popular in California. In a recent Field poll, voters favored the initiative by a 2-1 margin. That’s not surprising, since the state legislature twice passed bills similar to Prop 215, only to have Gov. Pete Wilson veto them. The proposition’s backers, which include the California Academy of Family Physicians and the 25,000-member California Nurses Association, also have hefty financial support. Led by a handful of millionaires–including George Soros, a currency magnate who donates millions every year to social causes–pro-pot forces have raked in $1 million. The Prop 215 foes have raised $30,000.
If it passes, Prop 215 will almost certainly become a national model. Several states have already passed nonbinding resolutions supporting the medicinal use of marijuana; Washington state has funded a $70,000 study of the issue. Though federal drug laws would still make marijuana illegal regardless of state statutes, the Drug Enforcement Administration can’t police small-scale abuse. McCaffrey believes that the California proposition is a ruse to legalize pot for one slice of the population, then decriminalize it entirely. As it is, he says, the initiative is so full of loopholes that it would make pot available to practically anyone. The proposition says that patients suffering from ““any’’ condition ““for which marijuana provides relief’’ could qualify. Does that include headaches? ““As politics, this proposition is dishonest,’’ McCaffrey says. ““And its attempt to exploit human suffering in an effort to legalize an illicit drug is shameful.’’ This is one fight that’s likely to smolder well past the election.
