cannabisnews.com: White House Papers Over Gap With Gore On Marijuana





White House Papers Over Gap With Gore On Marijuana
Posted by FoM on December 15, 1999 at 19:56:15 PT
By Randall Mikkelsen
Source: Reuters
The White House on Wednesday sought to paper over differences it has with Vice President Al Gore over the medical use of marijuana, a day after Gore endorsed the concept at a candidate forum in New Hampshire.
"I don't think his statements last night really put him at odds in a fundamental way with what the administration's position is," White House spokesman Joe Lockhart told reporters."We support innovative intervention to pain relief, particularly with terminally ill patients. We don't have yet conclusive scientific evidence that marijuana provides a therapeutic benefit that exceeds currently prescribed drugs," Lockhart said.Gore on Tuesday told a WNDS television forum in Derry, New Hampshire -- where he was campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination -- that patients should be able to use marijuana to relieve suffering upon a doctor's advice."I'm not a medical expert. I do not favor legalizing marijuana ... but I think that where you have sufficient controls, I think that doctors ought to have that option," Gore said."We have not given doctors enough flexibility to help patients who are going through acute pain," Gore said. He recalled that his sister, Nancy Gore Hunger, was prescribed marijuana by her doctor while she fought a losing battle against cancer in the 1980s. But he said she concluded it did not help her.Gore later told reporters he did not believe scientific research had not yet established a sufficient basis to justify medical use of marijuana, said his spokesman, Chris Lehane.Gore's comments appeared to break from Clinton policies for the second time in two days. On Monday, he called for an end to the administration's "don't ask, don't tell policy" on gays in the military.The Clinton administration has opposed all state and local ballot initiatives to permit medicinal use of marijuana and disputed claims that the drug had a medical value."Smoked marijuana will never be medicine," the head of the White House anti-drug effort, Barry McCaffrey, said on Wednesday in response to a reporter's question about Gore's statement,However, he said, research was continuing into the possible medical benefits of components of marijuana. "This deserves to be a scientific medical issue, not a political issue," he said.Nevertheless, Clinton in September vetoed a federal funding bill for Washington, D.C., partly on the grounds that it unfairly barred the city from legalizing medical marijuana after a local referendum overwhelmingly approved such a step.Twenty-eight states have laws on their books allowing some form of medical use of marijuana, which is prohibited under federal law.Gore's Democratic opponent, former Senator Bill Bradley, said at a separate WNDS forum on November 29 that the issue of medical marijuana needed to be studied further, but that he did not support medical uses of it now.Both Gore and Bradley have acknowledged trying marijuana in the past, for recreational purposes.Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush said in October the issue of medical marijuana use should be left for states to decide, but he personally opposed the practice.  Published: December 15, 1999Copyright © 1995-1999 Excite Inc. © 1999 Reuters Limited. Related Articles: Vice President Smokes Admin. On Issue of MMJ - 12/15/99http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread4015.shtmlGore Supports 'Flexibility' on Medical Marijuana http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread4009.shtmlGore Is Open To Medical Marijuana - 12/14/99 http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread4004.shtml 
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