When White House drug czar Barry McCaffrey blew into town last fall to use Los Gatos High School and its football team as a backdrop for his anti-Proposition 215 message, he warned that passage of the ballot measure would "send the wrong message" to young people.
Now that Californians--including Los Gatans--have overwhelmingly approved the "compassionate use of marijuana" initiative, the White House, led by McCaffrey, has declared a campaign of intimidation against physicians in this state and in Arizona, where a similar initiative passed in November.
As part of that campaign, Attorney General Janet Reno has threatened doctors who suggest marijuana to their patients with exclusion from Medicare and Medicaid programs. She also announced at a press conference that these same doctors could be stripped of their right to prescribe any drugs.
Why target doctors? Reno told reporters at the press conference that Proposition 215 sends the wrong message.
The real message is that drug use among young people increased dramatically during Bill Clinton's first four years in office. Republicans made hay of that embarrassing statistic early in the campaign. What with rumors about drug use among his young staff and Clinton's own admission that he tried marijuana but didn't inhale, well, it was just time for the administration to appear tough on drugs.
But if the administration thinks the right message is that doctors shouldn't be allowed to do all in their power to help severely ill patients relieve their pain, then the administration probably thinks young people will turn against drugs in droves if they just had a little more exposure to that catchy phrase "Just Say No."
One of the arguments McCaffrey and others made when they were in Los Gatos was that it would be a mistake to legitimize marijuana through passage of the measure because marijuana is a gateway drug--people who take other drugs often start with marijuana.
We don't disagree that marijuana is a gateway drug for some users. What we don't understand is what that has to do with doctors and the patients in their care who are in excruciating pain. What does teenage drug use have to do with AIDS patients who are wasting away because they have no appetite?
One of the very first lessons parents teach their children is that medicine should not be used casually. Doctors prescribe medicine to children when they are sick. Mothers and fathers give children appropriate medicines to break fevers, relieve pain, settle stomachs and ease coughing.
Children seem perfectly able to understand that just because medicine makes them feel better when they are sick doesn't mean they should take it when they are well.
Is there some danger that a few doctors might advise the use of marijuana irresponsibly? Certainly. There have always been doctors who write a prescription for anything from diet pills to tranquilizers a little too casually. That doesn't justify a campaign against doctors and--for all intents and purposes--their severely ill patients.
If the administration wants to send a message that young people should avoid drugs, it needs to confront the problem head on instead of waging a battle on the backs of sick and dying people.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, January 8, 1997.
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