Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1996. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1996. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - Monday, 2 December 1996, 15:56 P.M.
Charging that Arizona voters had been hoodwinked into supporting the measure by deceptive advertising, Republican Sen. Jon Kyl asked the federal Drug Enforcement Administration to consider ways to accelerate anti-drug efforts in his state.
Lawmakers at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing also said Congress would keep a close eye on the impact of the measures -- calling them a first step in a well-orchestrated, well-funded plan to legalize drugs in America.
"I believe most of them (voters) were deceived and deliberately so by the sponsors of this proposition," Kyl said, referring to ads for the proposition that emphasized changes in drug sentencing laws and minimized medical use.
"(The ballot measure) begins a road to destruction of people's lives in this country," he said.
The California initiative, passed with 56 percent of the vote, would decriminalize marijuana if a doctor recommended it for medical reasons.
The Arizona measure approved by a nearly two-to-one margin allows doctors to prescribe use of marijuana, and possibly other prohibited drugs, if they could cite studies showing they had proven medical benefits.
The initiatives conflict with federal anti-drug laws barring marijuana use.
White House anti-drug chief Barry McCaffrey and DEA Administrator Thomas Constantine told the committee they were working with state officials to figure out how to respond.
Constantine said he would continue to target major drug traffickers, but did not appear to have legal power to let state officers enforce federal drug laws, as Kyl asked.
He said the DEA could go after physicians who violated federal laws against prescribing certain controlled substances. The agency is reviewing whether state officials could confiscate drugs as contraband under federal law.
"These legalization initiatives were not local, grassroots efforts but part of a well-orchestrated, well-financed national movement not for the compassionate use of marijuana, but to legalize drugs," Constantine said.
Arizona Maricopa County Attorney Richard Romley said the law presented tough questions. For instance, if officers did not confiscate drugs they saw in a car and the driver was high and in a serious accident, would police face liability?
Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican, asked for a report by Jan. 1 outlining policy, but said federal officers could not be expected to replace state officials.
Marvin Cohen, treasurer of Arizonans for Drug Policy Reform, said, "The contention that the public of Arizona was duped is absurd." The Marijuana Policy Project in a statement charged McCaffrey with ignoring the medical needs of the ill.
McCaffrey lobbied against the initiatives, opposed by President Clinton, calling them "hoax" propositions and saying there was not evidence to support medical use of marijuana.
The push for the California measure was led by the Los Angeles Cannibas Buyers Club, which includings people with AIDS who have doctors' notes suggesting they use marijuana. Doctors were split on the California intiative and medical groups did not endorse it because of the lack of conclusive studies.
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