cannabisnews.com: Deputy Drug Czar's Tough Medicine





Deputy Drug Czar's Tough Medicine
Posted by CN Staff on May 24, 2003 at 08:12:01 PT
By Rebecca Vesely, Staff Writer
Source: San Mateo County Times
Dr. Andrea Barthwell cringes when she hears phrases like "zero tolerance" and "gateway drug." This might seem like an odd reaction from the White House deputy drug czar, but then Barthwell is not your typical war-on-drugs hardliner. Barthwell is the first physician appointed to a senior position in the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy since the late 1980s. An African American who spent most of her career helping stem addiction among minorities and women with children in Chicago, she's also a Democrat. In fact, her nomination was backed by liberal leaders like the late Sen. Paul Wellstone of Minnesota. 
So what is she doing in the Bush White House? "I really thought about it," Barthwell said in an interview last week. "It's the issue." Addiction is an issue she cares about deeply. She is the former medical director of Illinois Treatment Alternatives for Safe Communities, a nonprofit that provides behavioral health services for the criminal justice and child welfare systems. She helped found the Chicago AIDS Task Force and served two terms as president of the Illinois Society of Addiction Medicine. Since her appointment in January 2002 as deputy director of demand reduction, Barthwell said she has been working to instill a more scientific -- and humanitarian -- approach to national drug policy. "It is a completely different strategy than the war on drugs," she said. "It shifts the focus away from the drugs and instead focuses on the impact substances have on people, communities and our nation as a whole." Focusing on people means not only reaching the 6 million or so addicts in America, but also targeting the estimated 10 million "non-dependent" drug users, people who take illegal drugs recreationally but are not addicted. The majority smoke pot. A large part of Barthwell's job is implementing President Bush's so-called Marijuana Initiative, launched last fall, which aims to stamp out access to and use of cannabis. Barthwell said the way to accomplish this goal is through the lens of science. "I always like to say, you get the advice that you seek. And President Bush nominated me to serve in this position, not someone trained in the arts of war," she said. "He was seeking advice from someone trained in the healing arts. That's what I've brought to it and that's the focus." Part of her focus is getting rid of the mantra that marijuana is a gateway to harder drug abuse, which she said is "just a theory." Instead, she sees marijuana itself as dangerous to young people, based on scientific evidence. "It matters little as to whether it is a gateway or not," she said, noting that more teenagers are in treatment for marijuana use than for alcohol. "But it is damaging enough, potent enough that it can change the trajectory of a person's life if they start using it before age 17." With this in mind, the Office of National Drug Control Policy is spending $149 million this fiscal year on a sweeping ad campaign. One of the so-called anti-drug spots depicts teenagers dying in a car crash after smoking pot. In another, a young woman who is date-raped at a party after taking tokes off a joint. Barthwell said these spots are meant to illustrate the impact marijuana has on teens' decision-making abilities. Smoking marijuana clouds judgment, Barthwell said. This is scientifically proven. Yet to be proven, she said, is pot as a legitimate form of pain management. As a physician, I wanted to have control over a delivery system, she said, citing well-tread concerns on marijuana dosage and side effects. She supports prescribing marinol -- which contains a synthetic version of Delta-9 THC, an active ingredient in marijuana -- as an extremely viable alternative for individuals who would want us to have smoked weed as medicine. Accepting smoked marijuana in pain management should be done through scientific process, she said, with review from the Federal Drug Administration, where she sits on the drug approval advisory board. That process, she added, should not be brought down by local referendums. Barthwell's assigned task of swaying public opinion on medicinal marijuana -- a contentious, political issue that ignites passionate responses in almost everyone with a pulse -- won't be easy. Dr. David Smith, founder of the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic and, like Barthwell, a past president of the American Society on Addiction Medicine, said he doesn't envy his colleague. Obviously, she wouldn't have taken the position without thinking she could do some good, Smith said. She is the top physician in addiction medicine in government and, hopefully, she can shift the focus away from criminal justice to treatment. The nature of drug policy in America entangles Barthwell in criminal justice matters. She is not soft on drug suppliers. She celebrates an administration proposal to double funding for drug courts from $50 million to $100 million over the next two years. And she has little sympathy for pot distributors like Ed Rosenthal. A national figure in the medicinal marijuana movement, Rosenthal was found guilty in January of violating three federal marijuana laws, carrying a minimum sentence of five years. Rosenthal was deputized by the city of Oakland in 1998 to grow cannabis for chronically ill patients under the assumed protection of a city ordinance and the state's 1996 Compassionate Use Act, which allows use of the drug with a physician's consent. U.S. District Judge Charles R. Bryer did not allow this information to be admitted in Rosenthal's trial, citing it as an invalid defense in federal court. Many jurors said they regretted their verdict upon learning that Rosenthal had the city's permission to grow marijuana for medicinal purposes. Barthwell does not see Rosenthal's prosecution as excessive. It seems excessive that someone would grow and distribute a controlled substance, she said. All this discussion about marijuana, however, seems to make her a bit weary. She brightens when talk turns to scientific breakthroughs in addiction medicine like buprenorphine, a promising drug therapy for heroin addicts that can be administered in the privacy of a physician's office. We have lagged way behind where we could have been in this country had there been a serious medication development program to treat addicts, she said. I hope this White House can nurture that.Complete Title: Deputy Drug Czar's Tough Medicine: More ScienceSource: San Mateo County Times, The (CA)Author: Rebecca Vesely, Staff WriterPublished: Saturday, May 24, 2003Copyright: 2003 MediaNews Group, Inc.Contact: mmcpartl angnewspapers.comWebsite: http://www.sanmateocountytimes.com/ Related Articles & Web Sites:Green-Aid.comhttp://www.green-aid.com Ed Rosenthal's Trial Pictures & Articleshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/trialpics.htm‘Ganja Guru' -- If Only Truth Could Set Him Free http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16354.shtmlThe Rebellion and Its Martyrs http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16346.shtml
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Comment #11 posted by Richard Paul Zuckerm on May 25, 2003 at 08:27:48 PT:
THE HISTORY OF CANNABIS LAWS 
   The Report From Iron Mountain, authored by Henry Kissinger, are the written plans to depopulate the earth by the Council On Foreign Relations, written some time around 1963. Report From Iron Mountain did include the use of BOGUS SCIENTIFIC STUDIES AND CONCLUSIONS. Considering this and the other history of the marihuana laws, as you may glean from the Web article entitled Shadow Of The Swastika, www.sumeria.net/politics/shadv3.html, and partly from the movie entitled GRASS, narrated by Woody Harrelson, which is now available on DVD, it is NO SURPRISE that the government is using lies to support their laws. "Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power."-Benito Mussolini, www.fromthewilderness.com.    The marihuana laws are unconstitutional or invalid for the reasons stated in State v. Mallan, 950 P.2d 178, 208-209, 218-219 (Hawaii 1998)(Dissenting opinion by Justice Levinson). The American courts of law may not recognize such unconstitutionality, but perhaps a well informed jury may, www.fija.org!!! We need people to contact Congress for support of The Truth In Trials Act, H.R. 1717!!!!
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Comment #10 posted by mayan on May 24, 2003 at 16:18:57 PT
Insane
"Smoking marijuana clouds judgment, Barthwell said. This is scientifically proven."The article goes on to say... "Barthwell does not see Rosenthal's prosecution as excessive."Now, who's judgement is clouded? A man who is licesed by the city of Oakland to produce medicine for the sick and dying now faces possible life in prison. Barthwell doesn't consider that excessive prosecution? That is why she is in the Bush White House! 
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Comment #9 posted by The GCW on May 24, 2003 at 11:55:17 PT
Doing the devils work.
More kids are in treatment for using cannabis, and We know that is court induced and chosen to keep out of the cage... But if everytime they cought a kid using booze, they invoked the cage or treatment, things would be so out of hand to the urine suckers, they would not accept it.And yes, she is a prohibitionists so she is doing the work of the devil.
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Comment #8 posted by lombar on May 24, 2003 at 11:13:52 PT
Hi JHarshaw
"Hopefully the next Presidential election can help to put America back where she belongs, as a true land of the free!"Well I am sure that I am not alone in adding that to my prayers for the sake of all of us earthlings...
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Comment #7 posted by FoM on May 24, 2003 at 10:57:20 PT
Virgil
Thank you for the heads up on the article. I have it posted now. 
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Comment #6 posted by John Tyler on May 24, 2003 at 10:30:16 PT
Still a prohibitionist
So what, she is just another prohibitionist in the Bush Administration. This is just Prohibition with a "human face". Meaning she will smile, and wish people well as they go to jail. This is such a meaningless article.
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Comment #5 posted by Virgil on May 24, 2003 at 10:18:54 PT
Comment4- What am I thinking
All right already. So the paragraph did not quote Grinspoon. The article did actually quote Dr. Russo.
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Comment #4 posted by Virgil on May 24, 2003 at 10:13:41 PT
Alternet covers GWPharma extracts
Alternet has a piece by Mari Kane titled "The Straight Dope on Marijuana Pharmaceuticals"- http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16000It has new information not yet seen on Cnews. It quotes Dr. Russo. It quotes Dr. Grinspoon in this paragraph:Dr. Lester Grinspoon, retired Professor Emeritus of Harvard Medical School, has decidedly less enthusiasm for the ADS spray device. He criticizes its controls of titration, that is, how the patient incrementally increases the dosage necessary for symptomatic relief. 
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Comment #3 posted by JHarshaw on May 24, 2003 at 10:01:30 PT
lombar
Greetings.Your comments about the truth in U.S. courts got me thinking. The really sad thing is that "THE TRUTH" was always the thing that was sought after in court.Only under your current government has truth become an unwelcome guest in federal courts.Hopefully the next Presidential election can help to put America back where she belongs, as a true land of the free!peace and pot
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Comment #2 posted by lombar on May 24, 2003 at 09:00:51 PT
Another one..
"Addiction is an issue she cares about deeply. "Yes and she is willing to jail anyone who suffers from it. Too bad she doesn't care about the addicts themselves..."Smoking marijuana clouds judgment, Barthwell said. This is scientifically proven. " Whereas alcohol completely erases ones judgement. What has been 'scientifically proven' is that draconian sentences have no effect on usage of marijuana. "Barthwell does not see Rosenthal's prosecution as excessive. It seems excessive that someone would grow and distribute a controlled substance, she said. "Only in America can the 'truth' be excluded from a court of law. 
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Comment #1 posted by Virgil on May 24, 2003 at 08:33:57 PT
We disagree and she supports the SOL
Barthwell does not see Rosenthal's prosecution as excessive. It is this simple. If the plutocracy and their agents were guided by truth, then there would be no stonewall surrounding their sacred Schedule One Lie. Cannabis would be a Schedule 3 or 4 substance and states would be allowed to implement their MMJ programs without interference from the federal government. Ed Rosenthall did not violate the spirit of the law or what anyone with any knowledge would recognize as the proper law, even if you kept your reasoning that did not call into account that the WOD is on shaky ground Constitutionally at best and that the DEA should be dismantled and the CSA should be repealed as recommended in recently by the Cato Institute, a conservative think tank- http://www.cato.org/pubs/handbook/hb108/hb108-17.pdfThis article is pretty slick but it is still prohibitionist propaganda. It is from American media isn't it? There is a clue already.
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