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   . . . a weekly service for the media on news items related to marijuana
                                prohibition.
                               October 2, 1997
       NORML Board Member, Others Testify Before Congress In Favor Of
                              Medical Marijuana
 Republicans Balk, Voice Strong Opposition Toward Allowing Medical Marijuana
                                  Research
        October 2, 1997, Washington, D.C.:  Witnesses on both sides of the
medical marijuana issue testified before Congress yesterday at a hearing
before the House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Crime.  Proponents
likened marijuana's medical utility and safety to drugs such as penicillin
and urged the federal government to support legislative efforts to allow
physicians to prescribe the drug, while opponents urged federal officials to
take a more vocal stance opposing pending state marijuana initiatives.
        The medical marijuana debate symbolizes "who we are [as a country
and] where are we going,"
said Dennis Peron, Director of the San Francisco Cultivators' Club and a
co-author of Proposition 215.  Peron was one of three witnesses who spoke in
favor of allowing patients legal access to marijuana under a physicians
supervision.
        "During the past few years, the medical uses of marijuana have
become increasingly clear to many physicians and patients, and the number of
people with direct experience of these uses has been growing," testified
NORML board member Dr. Lester Grinspoon of Harvard Medical School.  "It is
essential to relax legal restrictions that prevent physicians and patients
from achieving a workable accommodation that takes into account the needs of
suffering people."  Grinspoon said he supported H.R. 1782, legislation
introduced by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) in June which would remove federal
restrictions that currently prevent physicians from legally prescribing
marijuana.
        Frank -- who attended the hearing, but does not sit on the
Subcommittee -- used the opportunity to ask for Congressional support for
his measure and chided House Republicans for objecting to federal efforts to
study marijuana's medical potential.  "People must feel that by studying
marijuana, it will undermine their position [against the drug,]" he said.
        Subcommittee members Bob Barr (R-Ga.) and Asa Hutchinson (R-Ark.)
repeatedly told witnesses, including National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
Director Dr. Alan Leshner, that they opposed any efforts by the National
Institutes of Health (NIH) to conduct scientific trials on marijuana's
medical potential.  Their charges came in response to a recent NIH report
urging the federal government to play an active role in facilitating
clinical evaluations of medical marijuana as well as testimony from Drug
Czar Barry McCaffrey endorsing additional research.
        Barr and Hutchinson called such proposals "inconsistent" with the
administration's position that marijuana lacks medical value.  The
representatives further warned that federal efforts to study marijuana's
medical value would send a harmful message to children.
        Subcommittee chair Rep. Bill McCollum (R-Fla.), a former two-time
co-sponsor of medical marijuana legislation in 1981 and 1983, voiced little
support for the use of marijuana as a medicine and urged federal officials
to campaign against a potential state initiative in Florida.  Witness Roger
Pilon of the CATO Institute attacked such federal efforts to persuade voters
as well as override existing state medical marijuana laws.  "Clearly, this
is a blatant effort by the federal government to impose a national policy on
the people in the states in question, people who have already elected a
contrary policy," he said.  "[This] effort cannot be justified under the
14th Amendment, for the states have not enacted a policy that runs roughshod
over the privileges or immunities of their citizens or denies them due
process or equal protection under the laws."
        Initiative efforts similar to those that took place in Arizona and
California are pending in Alaska, Arkansas, the District of Columbia,
Oregon, and Washington state, officials said.
        NORML Director R. Keith Stroup said that he believed Grinspoon,
Peron, and Pilon presented a strong, clear, and credible" argument in favor
of the medical use of marijuana, and called the hearing a positive step
toward reform.
        "The good news for the medical marijuana movement is that McCaffrey
and other federal officials no longer claim that there is no currently
available medical marijuana research or refer to our position as 'Cheech and
Chong medicine,'" Stroup said.  "Now they have fallen back to the position
that physicians and scientists should decide this issue, a position NORML
also favors.  This change represents a step in the right direction, and we
are accustomed to making progress in small increments when the final goal is
changing decades-old ideologies on Capitol Hill."
        For more information, please contact either Keith Stroup or Paul
Armentano of NORML @ (202) 483-5500.
    Reformers Expect To Turn In Twice The Signatures Necessary To Freeze
                                  Marijuana
                         Recriminalization In Oregon
        October 2, 1997, Portland, OR:  Citizens for Sensible Law
Enforcement expect to file approximately 95,000 signatures with the
Secretary of State tomorrow to freeze legislation recriminalizing the
possession of small amounts of marijuana.  Activists need only 49,000
signatures from registered voters to qualify the referendum for the 1998
ballot.  Oregon voters will then have the opportunity to accept or reject
the Legislature's decision.
        Referendum supporters said that the high number of signatures is
significant.  "To collect over 90,000 signatures in a matter of six weeks is
astounding," said co-chief petitioner Todd Olson.  "The tremendous response
to this effort shows that Oregonian voters have real questions and concerns
about what the Legislature has done, and want a chance to make this decision
for themselves."
        House Bill 3643, approved by the Legislature on July 2, increased
the penalty for possession of less than one ounce of marijuana from a
non-criminal "violation" to a class C misdemeanor crime.  Under the new law
-- scheduled to take effect on October 4 -- individuals would be arrested
and, if convicted, could face 30 days in jail, loss of their driving
privileges for six months, and have their property seized by law
enforcement.
        Upon signing the law, Gov. John Kitzhaber (D) said that H.B. 3643
"had less to do with the possession of marijuana as it does with expanding
powers of search and seizure," a position which he strongly favors, but a
majority of state voters oppose.  According to a state-wide poll conducted
last summer, 58 percent of respondents said they were concerned that the new
law would give police "too much authority to search the cars and homes of
Oregon citizens."
        Michael Rose, also a chief petitioner for CSLE, said that the most
important outcome of the referendum effort is that voters will have the
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