WASHINGTON — Stepping up their attack on the state's medical marijuana initiative, Clinton administration officials warned doctors in California and Arizona on Monday that they could lose their authority to write many drug prescriptions and may face criminal charges if they recommend marijuana for their patients.
"Our health care professionals need to understand that federal law has not changed," said Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala. "It continues to be illegal in the United States to prescribe marijuana."
Although physicians are licensed to practice by the states, they need authorization from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to prescribe controlled substances, including common painkillers. Without that authorization, most doctors "would practically be out of business," one federal official said.
The announcement culminates an eight-week debate within the administration on how to respond to the drug initiatives that won voter approval in California and Arizona.
Retired Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey, the White House director of drug control policy, worked with federal law enforcement agencies in drawing up the administration's response, and it was approved by Clinton before he headed for a vacation in South Carolina and the Virgin Islands.
"This is not a medical proposition," McCaffrey said in condemning the two state initiatives. "This is the legalization of drugs."
In letters going out this week, federal officials plan to tell medical groups and state agencies that they "unequivocally will seek to revoke the DEA registrations of physicians who recommend or prescribe Schedule 1 controlled substances" such as marijuana. Health officials said these doctors could be excluded from the Medicare and Medicaid programs.
To hammer home the point, Atty. Gen. Janet Reno said federal prosecutors will bring a few criminal cases against doctors who deal in a "high volume" of marijuana or give the drug to minors.
Angry advocates of the medical marijuana initiative accused the government of turning the war on drugs into a "war on doctors."
"These are scare tactics, and we don't intend to let this happen without a fight," said Bill Zimmerman, director of Americans for Medical Rights, a major sponsor of the November ballot initiative.
