Activists add weight to pot proposal

The Bush administration, in the person of deputy drug czar Andrea Barthwell, is vehemently opposing a citizen's initiative in Oregon that is attempting to increase the amount of medical marijuana a patient may legally possess. It's reportedly a well organized effort but also a pretty ambitious proposal.

The expansion measure aimed at the Nov. 2 ballot would increase the possession limit from the current three ounces to a pound at any one time. It also would create state-regulated dispensaries authorized to supply up to six pounds of marijuana per year to qualified patients.

I assume the high end of the law would be for the terminally ill and households where multiple patients reside. Activists reasonably say the measure would keep the chronically ill from having to constantly scramble to get their medicine. Our drug czarina would disagree.

"These people will keep coming back with more expansive and more ridiculous propositions to eliminate all controls on drugs," said Barthwell.

You can't blame her for not wanting that. If they legalized the market, she wouldn't have a job with a royal title anymore.