THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Sunday, June 23, 1996                 TAG: 9606230102
SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A14  EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: THE NEW YORK TIMES 
                                            LENGTH:   34 lines

AMA SHELVES ITS REPORT ON LEGALIZATION OF DRUGS

A report commissioned by an influential committee of the American Medical Association has been shelved after some medical experts who reviewed a draft copy expressed outrage at its recommendation that marijuana be legalized and criminal penalties be removed from other illegal drugs.

As a result, the volatile issue will be absent from the association's agenda when its annual meeting begins today in Chicago.

The draft report, which was commissioned to look at ways to reduce the harm drugs cause to those who use them, said that neither criminal penalties nor treatment programs have substantially deterred drug use. It also suggests allowing addicts to refuse treatment, dropping criminal penalties for using illegal drugs, devising a way to sell marijuana over the counter and preventing undercover law-enforcement officers from buying drugs and arresting dealers.

The report did not specify which drugs its recommendations would affect, but it did not exclude harder drugs like heroin and cocaine.

The report was prepared for the association's Council on Scientific Affairs, which examines scientific and public-health issues for discussion by the House of Delegates, the group's policy-making body. The report was shelved after objections were raised by prominent medical groups that were asked to comment on the draft, and by doctors within the AMA, one of whom provided The New York Times with a copy.

Several of those doctors said in interviews that a national organization representing nearly 300,000 doctors should not be endorsing the greater availability of hazardous substances. by CNB