X-Message-Number: 8779 Date: Thu, 13 Nov 1997 19:45:29 -0700 From: David Brandt-Erichsen <> Subject: Oregon update From the ASSOCIATED PRESS (Thurs Nov 13/97; 2 p.m. EST) Reno: DEA Chief Should Have Waited WASHINGTON (AP) -- Attorney General Janet Reno said Thursday her chief drug-law enforcer should have waited for a full Justice Department review of Oregon's assisted suicide law before warning doctors about prescribing lethal medication. Reno said she did not get advance word of a letter by the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration wrote saying that Oregon doctors could lose their licenses to prescribe federally controlled drugs if they dispensed such medications to help assist suicides. Asked if DEA chief Thomas Constantine had sent the letter prematurely to Congress, Reno said: ``I think it's important on a legal issue such as this the whole department review it, and we are in the process of doing do.'' That review would be completed ``as soon as possible,'' Reno said at her weekly session with news reporters. Reno said she had not talked about the letter with Constantine, who had replied to Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, about how the DEA would respond to the Oregon law. Aides to Reno did not know about the letter for several days after it was sent to Hatch, officials said. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=8779