DRUG BUSTS

FORMER GOP CONGRESS MEMBER JOINS POT CAMPAIGN

CHRIS FRATES, POLITICO - Bob Barr, who as a Georgia congressman authored
a successful amendment that blocked D.C. from implementing a medical
marijuana initiative, has switched sides and become a lobbyist for the
Marijuana Policy Project. But that doesn't mean he has become a
bong-ripping hippie. He isn't pro-drug, he said, just against government
intrusion.

"I, over the years, have taken a very strong stand on drug issues, but
in light of the tremendous growth of government power since 9/11, it has
forced me and other conservatives to go back and take a renewed look at
how big and powerful we want the government to be in people's lives,"
Barr said. . .

Ironically, Barr said he will help lead the fight to give District
residents a say on whether to allow medical marijuana - the very thing
the "Barr Amendment" denied them in 1998. He will lobby for the rights
of states to set their own medical marijuana policy without federal
interference. The four-term former Republican congressman will also work
to unplug a youth anti-drug campaign which a recent study showed
actually increased the likelihood that all teens would smoke pot.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0307/3329.html

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