San Francisco Examiner - April 3, 2007
Harry Jaffe, hjaffe@washingtonian.com

Am I hallucinating, or has former Congressman Robert "Bob" Barr become the official lobbyist for the Marijuana Policy Project, with the goal of legalizing pot for medicinal use in D.C.?

Reports from Capitol Hill newspapers say Barr, who once tormented us from Congress before he left the legislature in 2003, will be back on the Hill to argue that pot should be made available for medical purposes in our fair city.

"That's true," says Aaron Houston, government relations director for the Marijuana Policy Project. "We believe he will be a great help to us."

Let me take you back to 1998, when the voters of the District of Columbia considered Initiative 59, Legalization of Marijuana for Medical Treatment. The benefits of marijuana had already been established. Its main chemical ingredient, THC, was known to ease pain for people with cancer, glaucoma, AIDS, HIV or Crohn's disease.

DC voters approved Initiative 59 by nearly 70 percent. Since many of our residents suffer from AIDS, we looked forward to making marijuana available to soothe their pain.

Enter Congressman Barr. Then a darling of the hardcore religious right, Barr attached a rider to the D.C. appropriations bill that prohibited the use of medical marijuana in D.C. In one stroke, he negated the initiative duly passed in a democratic vote of D.C. citizens.

And so it has stood for the past eight years: a congressional rider has trumped democracy in the nation's capital.

Should we be happy that Barr, who has turned the other cheek and become a lobbyist, will stalk the halls of Congress and try to overturn the language he wrote in 1999? And if he's successful, the yoke of his heavy-handed action will be lifted?

For practical purposes, yes. According to the Marijuana Policy Project, a new study says pot can help ease neuropathy, a generalized pain from nerves that afflicts AIDS patients. Marijuana also might help block the formation of plaque that causes Alzheimer's. It would be good if D.C. could join a dozen other states that have allowed the medical use of marijuana.

But for political purposes, Barr's conversion to pot lobbyist for D.C. makes me ill.

First, there's the stomach-turning example of a congressman who makes a law then makes money as a lobbyist trying to overturn it.

Then there's the sickening fact that a single congressman from a southern state can strike down the democratic will of D.C. residents with a few lines of legislation. If we had full voting rights, that would be much less likely to happen.

But it does happen. Congressmen and senators are still be able to play out their political fantasies in legislation aimed at us. Makes me want to throw up. Marijuana has been known to ease nausea.

Maybe I need a toke.

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