Dec. 31 - Doctors Given Federal Threat On Marijuana
December 31, 1996 -The Clinton Administration said today that doctors in California and Arizona who prescribe drugs like marijuana that are illegal under Federal law could lose their prescription-writing privileges and even face criminal charges.
Voters in those two states approved propositions in November that relax restrictions on the medical use of some illegal drugs. But the Federal Government, uneasy with the measures, has been developing a strategy to counter them.
''These propositions are not about compassion, they are about legalizing dangerous drugs,'' Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey, retired, Director of the Administration's Office of National Drug Control Policy, said at a news conference today. ''These two propositions simply do not affect Federal law.''
Supporters of the Arizona and California measures have pointed to some research suggesting that marijuana may be useful for relieving internal eye pressure in glaucoma, for controlling nausea in cancer patients on chemotherapy, and for combating severe weight loss associated with AIDS and the human immunodeficiency virus.
Yet several organizations of experts say that there is no proved medical use for marijuana and that in any case better drugs exist to treat nausea, the effects of glaucoma and H.I.V.-related ''wasting.''
That was a point underscored at the news conference today by General McCaffrey, Attorney General Janet Reno and Donna E. Shalala, the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
''All available research,'' Secretary Shalala said, ''has concluded that marijuana is dangerous to our health. Marijuana harms the brain, heart, lungs and immune system.''
Under the Administration plan of counterattack outlined today, doctors who counsel patients to use marijuana could be excluded from the Medicare and Medicaid programs, and, since their right to prescribe drugs depends on their being registered with the Drug Enforcement Administration, that right could be revoked.
They could also face criminal charges, although Attorney General Reno said Federal prosecutors would decide such charges case by case, taking into account whether a true doctor-patient relationship existed or whether instead unscrupulous physicians were simply out to sell marijuana for profit.
''We will not turn a blind eye toward our responsibility,'' Ms. Reno said.
The Federal law with which the Arizona and California measures are now in conflict is the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. Under that law, doctors are barred from prescribing ''Schedule I'' drugs. These drugs include not only marijuana, with which both states' measures deal, but also heroin and LSD, which the Arizona measure also addresses.
Reacting to the Administration's move, Dr. Jeffrey Singer, a Phoenix surgeon who was active in the movement to ease the strictures, said he was outraged by ''threats'' to physicians.
Dr. Singer noted that the newly approved Arizona proposition said merely that a person arrested for possession should be released if found to have a doctor's prescription. ''If they're going to take away a doctor's license because he rendered his opinion on paper, that's a First Amendment issue,'' Dr. Singer said.
Act Up, an advocacy group for AIDS patients, also protested. ''The President has declared war on people with AIDS and their doctors,'' said a spokesman, Steve Michael. ''There is a drug war, but it needs to be fought in areas other than the doctor-patient relationship.''
But the California Attorney General, Daniel E. Lungren, a Republican, praised the Administration for taking what he called a ''tough and reasonable'' stance.
''They tried to add some clarity where fog had existed,'' Mr. Lungren said.
(From The New York Times, December 31, 1996)
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpag...51C1A960958260
