Bill Richardson and the War on Sick People

I'd worried that Democratic dark horse Bill Richardson was going to soft peddle his medical marijuana support as he started to rise in the polls. I was wrong; he's digging in his heels.

"I'm very concerned that the Bush administration instead of going after drug dealers, is going after people suffering from cancer, a paraplegic, most recently," said Governor Richardson.

Agents raided 44-year-old Leonard French's home near Loving on Tuesday, even though he has state permission to grow and smoke medical marijuana.

The D.E.A. says it did not know French had a medical marijuana license until after the raid.

"The Bush administration seems to be, because they're unable to go after drug dealers, they seem to be picking on people suffering from cancer. That's inexplicable to me. And I'm gonna fight them," said Governor Richardson.

Related, here's a profile of Granite Staters for Medicinal Marijuana, one of those dogged groups that gets the candidates to address side issues and make the small state, handshake-driven primary process seem more justifiable.

I assessed Richardson's libertarian claims here and joined an MM activist who got the brush-off from Rudy! here.