Wire: DEA Boss Upset With Murphy Brown

Newshawk: paul wolf (paulwolf@mhv.net) Source: Associated Press Pubdate: Wed, 05 Nov 97

DEA Boss Upset With Murphy Brown

By The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Fictional broadcaster Murphy Brown's in trouble again with a government official. The chief of the Drug Enforcement Administration accused the CBS television character Wednesday of sending a dangerous message to children by using marijuana to relieve nausea caused by chemotherapy.

In a statement issued a few hours before Wednesday's broadcast of the situation comedy, DEA Administrator Thomas Constantine said CBS and the show's creators were ``doing a great disservice'' by ``trivializing drug abuse'' and ``pandering to the libertarian supporters of an `open society' and to the myths of legalization.''

In Wednesday's episode, actress Candice Bergen, who plays television reporter Brown, is shown smoking a marijuana cigarette to quell nausea produced by chemotherapy prescribed to treat her breast cancer. The illegal marijuana is purchased for her by another character, anchorman Jim Dial, who is concerned over her inability to get relief from legal drugs and therapies.

``As a law enforcement official with 38 years of experience and, even more importantly, a father and grandfather,'' Constantine said,. ``I am extremely troubled that at a time when teenage drug abuse is doubling ... a television show of the caliber of Murphy Brown would portray marijuana as medicine. It is not medicine.... More dangerously, the show send the message to our children that marijuana must be OK because it's medicine.''

CBS vice president Chris Enders replied in an interview, ``Murphy Brown has a rich history of blending comedy with controversial political and social issues and doing it responsibly. We stand firmly behind this episode, which deals with the medicinal use of marijuana in a compelling, poignant and sometimes humorous manner.''

Enders said the episode got a more restrictive rating than the show usually does -- TV-14, which means parents are strongly urged to exercise greater care in monitoring the program and are cautioned against letting children under the age of 14 watch unattended.

In 1992, then-Vice President Dan Quayle touched off a national debate when he accused the show of undermining families with Murphy Brown's decision to have a child out of wedlock.

Constantine said that smoked marijuana has ``more harmful chemicals than cigarettes and damages the immune system.''

He said medical experts, the American Medical Association, the American Glaucoma Society and the American Cancer Society have rejected marijuana as medicine; that its active ingredient, THC, is available by prescription and work is under way on other nausea treatments.

``I'm sorry if we've upset Mr. Constantine. Obviously he hasn't seen the show,'' said Mark Flanigan, executive producer of ``Murphy Brown,'' ``We had no political agenda. We are not advocating the medical use of marijuana.''

Flanigan said physicians and cancer specialists told the writers that some patients do relieve nausea with marijuana when other drugs don't work, so they wrote marijuana into the script only after showing Brown unsuccessfully trying all other known treatments.

``Marijuana was secondary to the story about Jim Dial and Murphy Brown. He comes to her aid; he risks something,'' Flanigan said. ``People will go to any lengths to come to the aid of loved ones. That's what the story is about.''

Flanigan said he hoped that if Constantine views the episode he would see ``our intention was to reflect what's happening, not to advocate a course of action.'' He added, ``I think we are doing a public service by ... increasing awareness of breast cancer.''

Media Awareness Project Contact: Mark Greer (mgreer@mapinc.org) P. O. Box 651 Porterville, CA 93258 (800) 266-5759 Webmaster: Matt Elrod (webmaster@mapinc.org)