CARDINAL POINTS

I just caught the end of the 60 Minutes segment on mandatory minimum sentences. It was surprisingly favorable to the FAMM movement I thought. Ed Bradley asked some good questions, and outside of the one howdy doody prohibitionist declaring the war on drugs a success, they aired judge after judge declaring the laws a travesty of justice and the original sponsor of the legislation admitted it had been rushed through and called it something like the greatest mistake of his life. I'll be looking for the transcript on this one.

Meanwhile, there's news breaking out all over the country on this war and it's been mostly good. A judge in Nashville showed some good sense in dimissing charges against six Hispanic defendants because the government's star witness, T.B.I. agent Patrick Howell, was high on cocaine himself while investigating and later testifying in the case. Unfortunately justice was not entirely served.

To support his habit, Howell later admitted to stealing cocaine from investigations he was involved in. Gonzalez points out that if he had the cocaine on him while he was working at the old T.B.I. building in South Nashville, he would have been in possession of a drug within 1,000 feet of Tennessee Preparatory School. And we already know he had been distributing cocaine as well. So why wasn't he prosecuted under the same statute used against the Hispanic defendants? In fact, all Howell got after pleading guilty to two counts of tampering with evidence was three years probation.

"What this says," Gonzales charges, "is that the district attorney's office will prosecute Hispanics who come within 1,000 feet of a school but not the law enforcement officers who likewise have drugs within 1,000 feet of a school."

I have nothing to add to that.

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Back east, The Washington Post ran a good piece on the medical community's growing concern with the prosecution of pain management practitioners. Many responsible physicians have been victimized by the DEA's current meddling in the practice of medicine. The growing number of high-profile cases and the insulting and unfair comparisons to street level crack dealers has angered many in the field.

Some pain doctors are organizing to push back, and in recent months a loose national movement has been formed to contest what some call the "war" being waged against pain doctors, pharmacists and suffering patients. A new group called the Pain Relief Network is organizing a march on Washington in April to protest the prosecutions and has hired an attorney to develop a legal strategy for appealing some of the convictions.

Always a nice time of year to visit our nation's capitol. The cherry trees should be blooming.

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Looking west to Colorado, Don Nord, the man we previously reported on, whose supply of medical marijuana was seized in an October raid by a local-federal drug task force has asked a judge to find the officers in contempt for failing to return the drug.

``Under federal law, marijuana is contraband, and by policy we destroy contraband,'' said U.S. attorney's spokesman Dick Weatherbee. ``There is obviously a dilemma here.''

The feds seem unconcerned about the potential fines or jail time while they thus defy the court's order. Why should they be? It seems unlikely they would be incarcerated and any fines would be paid with our tax dollars anyway. All the same, we await the ruling on this one with great interest.

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Finally, in Wisconsin, State Rep. Gregg Underheim made an abrupt about-face once confronted with his own diagnosis of prostate cancer. Thankfully his was a happy ending and he beat the disease without chemo, however it got him to thinking.

The Oshkosh Republican has decided to go against his party's leadership and introduce a bill that would let doctors prescribe marijuana for medical reasons.

Underheim acknowleges he faces an uphill battle in the legislature but armed with the insight of someone who has faced down death he had this to say on the subject.

Underheim said he doesn't think the average person would object to his bill.

"I think the public is much more comfortable with this than policy-makers are right now," he said.

He's right about that. Mr. Underheim, I'm sorry it took such an unpleasant experience to get you to buy your ticket, but welcome aboard the drug policy reform train.