X-Message-Number: 8775
Date: Thu, 13 Nov 1997 10:59:03 -0700
From: David Brandt-Erichsen <>
Subject: Oregon update

Oregon officials turn up heat on DEA to clarify stand 

The Associated Press 11/13/97 3:53 AM Eastern

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Oregon  political leaders are stepping up efforts to
find out whether the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has the authority
to penalize doctors who aid in the death of terminally ill patients. 

An aide to Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said the senator plans to meet with
Attorney General Janet Reno next week about whether the DEA has the power,
under the Controlled Substances Act, to discipline the doctors who dispense
lethal drugs. 
                
Wyden also will meet U.S. Department of Justice officials to review federal
policy toward the Oregon law that allows terminally ill patients to choose
to kill themselves.  Representatives of Gov. John Kitzhaber and state
Attorney General Hardy Myers are expected to participate. 

"We would like to see this cleared up within a week or two," Wyden's chief
of staff Josh Kardon said.  Kitzhaber plans to contact the Clinton
administration in hopes of receiving assurances that the DEA will back away
from its threat to revoke doctors' licenses to prescribe some drugs if they
write lethal prescriptions. 
                
Wyden and Kitzhaber contend the DEA overstepped its authority when
Administrator Thomas Constantine said, in a letter to the House and Senate
judiciary committees' chairmen, that prescribing lethal medication to
assist in a suicide would violate federal narcotics law.  The letter was
written just one day after Oregon voters reaffirmed their support of the
physician-assisted suicide law they first approved in 1994.    Kardon said
the threat seems to have abated. 
                
"It appears that the DEA has a particularly weak case," Kardon said.  One
of the recipients of Constantine's letters, House Judiciary Committee
Chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill., said he still believes that the DEA should
pursue doctors who prescribe lethal doses of medicine. But he said he has
no plans to introduce legislation to overturn Oregon's law. "We got the
right answer, so I don't have any plans for legislation or anything like
that. I think the courts will deal with it, ultimately," Hyde said. 

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