DEA Rules Against Medical Marijuana 
While Drug   Czar Tipples, Chews Nicotine on the Job
(A press release from California NORML: 415-563-5858)
        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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