Source: Readers Digest Interactive Pubdate: Tue, 5 May Daniel Levine HIGH ON A LIE Funded by billionaires, the "medical marijuana" movement is blowing smoke in our eyes. One Saturday last September, 50,000 people, most of them teen-agers, crowded into the Boston Common for the eighth annual Freedom Rally. Its organizers billed it as the largest marijuana-legalization event on the East Coast. Strolling through the crowd, holding a joint, was a 17-year-old high-school senior who said his name was Bill. "If they allow sick people to use it," he said, "it can't be that damaging." Sharing a marijuana pipe with two friends, a 15-year-old named Nicole agreed. "Pot is harmless," she said. "It should be legalized because there are so many medical benefits. It helps you with a lot of things. It's the best." An increasing number of young Americans agree. They have gotten this idea from a well-funded movement to legalize the "compassionate" use of marijuana. While every legitimate drug requires rigorous testing by the FDA before being approved, marijuana advocates are opting for medicine by popular vote. This year signatures are being gathered for medical-marijuana initiatives in a half-dozen states and the District of Columbia. Marijuana's main active ingredient, THC, is effective in relieving nausea and inducing weight gain in cancer and AIDS patients. That is why the FDA has approved Marinol, a synthetic pill form of THC. But marijuana in its smoked form has never been shown in controlled scientific studies to be safe or effective. In fact, marijuana smoke contains over 2000 chemicals, many of which produce psychoactive reactions, cause lung damage and--in cancer and AIDS patients--increase the risk of pneumonia and weaken the immune system. Inhaling the smoke also disrupts short-term memory and leads to changes in the brain similar to those caused by heroin, cocaine and other highly addictive drugs. "There is no conclusive scientific evidence that marijuana is superior to currently available medicines," says Dr. Eric Voth, chairman of the International Drug Strategy Institute in Omaha. "Medical marijuana is a scam that takes advantage of sick and dying patients." Says Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey (Ret.), director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, "Medical marijuana is a stalking-horse for legalization. This is not about compassion. This is about legalizing dangerous drugs." "Daddy Warbucks" of Drugs. The legalization of marijuana and other drugs has been debated for more than 30 years, with a vast majority of Americans standing in opposition. Legalization supporters have used the argument that drugs are necessary for medical reasons. But now, for the first time, they have significant financial backing. In the last six years a handful of America's wealthiest people have contributed $20 million to groups that promote medical marijuana or other radical drug-policy reforms. Billionaire financier George Soros is the biggest giver, donating more than $16 million. Others include Peter Lewis, CEO of Cleveland-based Progressive Corp., the nation's sixth-largest auto insurer, and John Sperling, president of the Apollo Group, a holding company that controls for-profit universities and job-training centers. In an interview with Reader's Digest, the 76-year-old Sperling said he believes doctors should be allowed to prescribe all drugs, including heroin and LSD. Lewis declined to be interviewed. A spokesman for Soros said he does not support drug legalization. Nonetheless, Soros has donated millions since 1992 to groups led by people advocating it. Former Health, Education and Welfare Secretary Joseph A. Califano, Jr., calls him the "Daddy Warbucks of drug legalization." Soros created a drug-policy institute called The Lindesmith Center and has funded it with $4 million. Its director, Ethan Nadelmann, Soros's point man on drug policy, has said he wants to "legalize the personal possession of drugs by adult Americans." Soros has also given $6.4 million to the Drug Policy Foundation (DPF), a leading advocate for medical marijuana. Its stated mission is "publicizing alternatives to current drug strategies." Its founder, attorney and college professor Arnold Trebach, calls himself a "flat-out legalizer" who advocates the repeal of current drug laws. Richard J. Dennis, a 49-year-old Chicago commodities trader and member of DPF's board of directors, supports both medical marijuana and legalization in general. In fact, says Dennis, "I'd like to see legalization for adults for all drugs, including heroin." On DPF's advisory board is Harvard Medical School psychiatrist Lester Grinspoon, a leading advocate of medical marijuana for over 25 years. He compares marijuana's potential benefit to that of penicillin, predicting, "It will be the wonder drug of the new millennium." Soros, Lewis and Sperling gained their biggest victory in November 1996 when California voters passed Proposition 215, also known as the Compassionate Use Act. It allows pot to be grown and smoked for "any illness for which marijuana provides relief." There are no age restrictions. "Illness" is loosely defined and can include headaches, chronic pain and arthritis. A doctor's oral recommendation is all that is required. The principal author of the California initiative was 52-year-old Dennis Peron, a San Francisco "medical pot club" owner who's been arrested 15 times on marijuana charges. Peron says he worded the initiative vaguely because he believes "all marijuana use is medical." Peron's Cannabis Cultivators' Club is the state's largest pot club, taking in over $20,000 a day. One day last fall, Peron wandered the club greeting patrons and handed one a bulging quarter-pound bag of marijuana. Standing in line at Peron's smoke-filled club to buy an eighth of an ounce of high-grade Mexican marijuana was a 39-year-old named Anthony. Under California's law, Anthony is considered a "seriously ill patient" who can purchase and smoke pot. He tokes up four or five times a day. When asked about his ailment, Anthony answered: "Officially, hernia discomfort from over strenuous intercourse. Actually, I can't feel it." He said the club admitted him without any medical referral. A self-described "potaholic," Anthony has smoked dope since he was 16. "My problems," he conceded, "are related to a general life-style kind of thing." Peron's club had operated for years, despite violating state and federal drug laws. In August 1996, state drug agents raided it, seizing 86 pounds of pot and $62,000. "The club was running a sophisticated illegal drug-distribution network," said a spokesman for California Attorney General Dan Lungren. A grand jury indicted Peron, and he awaits trial on felony drug charges. Meanwhile, Peron is running for governor of California. Peron's initiative never would have made it to the ballot without the help of Soros, Lewis and Sperling. California requires 433,269 valid petition signatures before a "citizen's initiative" can be placed on the ballot. As the deadline neared, Peron and his unorganized group of volunteers had collected only 40,000. That is when Ethan Nadelmann of Soros's Lindesmith Center stepped in. He helped create Californians for Medical Rights, a sophisticated campaign organization that pushed the medical-marijuana initiative. Soros and Lewis poured $400,000 into the group, which paid professional signature gatherers who, in 90 days, obtained more than 700,000 signatures. Once the measure was on the ballot, Soros, Lewis and Sperling contributed a combined $450,000 for advertising. Commercials featured emotional appeals for relief through the use of marijuana. The ads never mentioned that Proposition 215 would allow marijuana to be smoked for any condition, without age restriction and without a prescription. One of the numerous medical-marijuana clubs that opened as a result of Peron's measure was the Dharma Producers Group in San Francisco, which bragged that it offered "medical marijuana with a Tibetan touch." The club's "medical director," a ponytailed 52-year-old named Lorenzo Pace, laughed when he explained his medical-marijuana credentials: "I did preliminary research all through the '60s." Californians for Medical Rights has since changed its name to Americans for Medical Rights. Today it is leading a campaign to place medical-marijuana initiatives on state ballots across the country. Rx: LSD While Californians were voting on medical marijuana, their neighbors in Arizona were considering an even more radical initiative. The Drug Medicalization, Prevention and Control Act of 1996 proposed to legalize not only marijuana but also more than 100 other drugs--including heroin, LSD and PCP (angel dust)--for medical use. Arizona's initiative was sold to voters as a way to get tough on violent criminals. How? Open up jail space by paroling all first- and second-time drug offenders. This ignored the fact that virtually all of the 1200 inmates affected had plea-bargained down from much more serious charges or had prior felony records. In Arizona, Sperling spearheaded the campaign. He, Soros and Lewis contributed a total of $1.2 million; the DPF gave $303,000. This accounted for 99 percent of the initiative's total funding. As in California, much of this money paid for a massive media campaign. Opponents of the initiative, caught unprepared, did not run a single advertisement. The measure passed, but a post-election survey revealed that Arizona voters had been badly misled. Seventy-four percent did not believe doctors should be able to prescribe drugs such as heroin, PCP and LSD, as the proposition allowed; 70 percent agreed the initiative would give children the impression the drugs were also acceptable for recreational use. The state legislature subsequently passed a statute that effectively overrode the initiative. Fighting Back The organizers of Arizona's initiative moved to place a similar measure on the ballot in Washington State. Sperling, Lewis and Soros contributed a total of more than $1.5 million. Despite being outspent more than ten to one, opponents of the Washington initiative were not about to be caught unprepared. They took every opportunity to stress that the measure was not about compassion, but about legalizing dangerous drugs. Last November voters rejected the measure. The defeat in Washington has not sidetracked plans for similar medical-marijuana initiatives in other states. Battlegrounds include Hawaii, Florida, Arkansas, Maine and Alaska. An Oregon initiative would not only legalize use of many drugs but also permit the sale of marijuana in state liquor stores. In Washington, D.C., Initiative 59 would allow up to four caregivers, including "best friends," to cultivate pot for a "seriously ill" person. Organizers are hoping that passage of these initiatives will spur Congress to legalize medical marijuana under federal law. Says Dr. Robert DuPont, a former director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse: "Never in the history of modern medicine has burning leaves been considered medicine. Those in the medical-marijuana movement are putting on white coats and expressing concerns about the sick. But people need to see this for what it is: a fraud and a hoax."