The November 1996 meeting took place immediately following an election season in which President Clinton had been slammed by the Republicans as being soft on drugs. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R.-Texas, described the administration as "drug coddling" during the 1996 Republican convention, a theme echoed by candidate Bob Dole.

Last month -- when ONDCP was offered the chance to respond to a draft of a congressionally mandated, General Accounting Office analysis critical of McCaffrey and the drug office's management -- ONDCP chief of staff Janet Crist wrote: "The agency is very mindful of previous congressional complaints that the administration had been 'AWOL' in the area of drug control early in its term and determined to respond to constituent demands that their extensive efforts in the areas of prevention, treatment, enforcement and interdiction be publicly recognized."

But the October 1997 legislation that paved the way for the paid media campaign states that ONDCP must submit a strategy for approval by both the House and the Senate that includes "guidelines to ensure and certify that none of the funds will be used for partisan political purposes." As their statements quoted in this article suggest, the participants discussed using public monies for a media campaign to try to defeat a specific political viewpoint -- one that will be contested in the upcoming elections in Colorado and Nevada.

Medical use initiatives have passed in six states: California, Arizona, Alaska, Washington, Oregon and Maine. A non-binding first initiative also passed in Nevada, and an initiative in Colorado was disqualified because supporters hadn't gathered enough signatures to get it on the ballot. Both states will reconsider the matter this year. Additionally, this past spring, state legislators in Hawaii voted to allow medical use.

When asked about her department's participation in the meeting, Department of Education spokesperson Melinda Malico would say only that "General McCaffrey sets drug policy for the federal government. We participate in many meetings over at ONDCP." The Treasury and Health and Human Services departments declined comment.

However, in the statement he issued on Dec. 30, 1996, regarding "the administration's response" to the Arizona and California initiatives, a response coming "at the direction of the president," McCaffrey noted that the "interagency working group" met four times during November and December 1996. He also notes that "HHS and the Department of Education will educate the public in both Arizona and California about the real and proven dangers of smoking marijuana." But there was no discussion of the multimillion dollar anti-drug media campaign ONDCP was developing with the assistance of HHS -- and the PDFA.

Not surprisingly, ONDCP critics were dismayed to hear of the meeting. Steve Kubby, California's Libertarian Party candidate for governor in 1998, decried a meeting involving "public officials on the public payroll in a public facility conspiring to commit actions to undermine an election." The medical marijuana advocate is undergoing prosecution for alleged marijuana possession with the intent to sell, but he recently told the Los Angeles Times he was just using marijuana to combat the effects of adrenal cancer.

Another campaign critic, Sanho Tree, director of the Drug Policy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, observed that Rep. Mica has held hearings on the lobbying efforts of nonprofit drug reform groups. "Rep. Bob Barr [R-Ga.] even wanted to prosecute [reform] advocates under the RICO laws. Does this mean the Republican drug warriors will investigate the lobbying activities of PDFA?"

Adds Kevin B. Zeese, president of Common Sense for Drug Policy, "We see one more example of the drug war going too far, putting the drug war ahead of democracy. In reality, the drug czar is ginning up support through a phony grass-roots effort."

Recent Stories