Pubdate: Wed, 05 Feb 2014
Source: New York Post (NY)
Section: Pot Shots
Page: 1
Copyright: 2014 N.Y.P. Holdings, Inc.
Contact: http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/letters/letters_editor.htm
Website: http://www.nypost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/296
Author: Geoff Earle

SEYMOUR HOFFMAN A POLITICAL FOOTBALL IN CONGRESS WEED
WAR

Congressional Democrats dragged Philip Seymour Hoffman's name into a
hearing on the nation's marijuana laws Tuesday - even as Mimi
O'Donnell (above left), the grieving mom of his three kids, ventured
out to plan his funeral.

"It is ludicrous, absurd, crazy to have marijuana on the same level as
heroin. Ask the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, if you could," said Rep.
Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) in a stern lecture to Michael Botticelli,
President Obama's deputy drug czar.

"Nobody dies from marijuana. People die from heroin. And every second
we spend in this country trying to enforce marijuana laws is a second
that we're not enforcing heroin laws."

Even as the House Oversight Subcommittee's hearing was playing out, a
visibly shaken O'Donnell arrived at the Frank E. Campbell funeral home
on the Upper East Side, supported by Hoffman's assistant, Isabella
Wing-Davey.

Botticelli defended the administration's anti-legalization stance at
the hearing, but Cohen was having none of it. With the tragic actor's
body barely cold, he went on: "Heroin and meth are the two drugs that
are ravaging our country. And every death, including Mr. Hoffman's, is
partly the responsibility of the federal government's drug
priorities."

Under the federal list of "Schedule 1" drugs, marijuana is classified
the same as heroin.

Another Democrat, Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, tried to get
Botticelli to admit that speed was more addictive than pot.

"I think that conversation minimizes the harm," Botticelli responded,
refusing a direct answer.

"Your equivocation . . . is why young people don't believe the
propaganda," Blumenauer fumed.

Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) tried to get Botticelli to provide figures
on how many people have died from marijuana.

Botticelli replied, "I think the way you have to look at this is the
totality of harm that's associated with a substance. And to basically
state that because marijuana doesn't have the lethality and overdose
potential that heroin or alcohol does diminishes . . . the significant
health consequences that are associated with it,"

Republicans also went after the administration - but for not being
tougher on weed users, citing President Obama's statement that pot is
no more dangerous than alcohol. "We've gone from 'Just say no' . . .
[to] 'Just go ahead,' " cracked Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.). 
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