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Drug Czar Hypocrite Bans Medical Marijuana
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December 29, 1989: Drug Enforcement Administration chief John
Lawn extended the government's ban on medical use of marijuana,
overruling the decision of the DEA's own administrative judge Francis
Young, who ruled in 1988 that marijuana's medical benefits were "clear
beyond any question" and that it should be made available for treatment of
nausea from chemotherapy, spasms from multiple sclerosis, and
hyperparathyroidism. Administration officials had opposed ratifying Judge
Young's decision on the grounds that it would legitimize recreational use of
marijuana.
In the meantime, evidence mounts that Drug Czar William Bennett
indulges in recreational use of nicotine and alcohol, as reported in the
December issue of the California NORML newsletter. Bennett, a former two-
pack-a-day cigarette smoker, continues to consume nearly 40 mg. of nicotine
per day in chewing gum, a fact publicized in a recent series of Doonesbury
comic strips.
Now, a forthcoming story by High Times reporter Lynn Osburn reveals
that the Drug Czar also tipples on the job. Osburn says he observed Mr.
Bennett with a gin and tonic around 11 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 23rd at the
Beverly Hilton Hotel, before a major luncheon address to the entertainment
industry. According to Osburn, Mr. Bennett furtively laid the drink aside,
one-third consumed, on his way to the podium, then looked back nervously
as a High Times photographer took pictures of it. Acquaintances of Mr.
Bennett remember him as a beer drinker in his student days.
California NORML coordinator Dale Gieringer commented on the
situation by calling Bennett a "casual, recreational drug user" and urging him
to help legalize medical use of marijuana. "[We] do not begrudge you your
personal health habits," he wrote in a letter to the Czar, "But before your
next drink of alcohol or chomp of nicotine, please consider those less
fortunate than yourself, for whom drug use is not a 'casual, recreational'
matter but a question of relief from human suffering."
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