For example, just the salaries of Joe Califano and his number one propagandist exceeds NORML’s total annual budget.)
October 11, 1999

From The Boston Globe
letter@globe.com
http://extranet1.globe.com/LettersEditor/
http://www.boston.com/globe/
By A.J. Higgins, Globe Correspondent
See
The Boston Globe Wins The Reefer Madness Award.
Halfway Through The Story They Admit That There Is No "Hard Data" For Their Premise.

VOTERS TAKE MELLOW APPROACH TO POT VOTE

PORTLAND, Maine - For the last five years, the debate over the medicinal use of marijuana has rocked the country from coast to coast.

Who should be entitled to the drug's reputed benefits or whether marijuana even has any therapeutic value are questions that have pitted state legislatures against governors and produced competing verdicts in the nation's courts.

This year, Maine is the only state where the medicinal use of marijuana will be decided by voters in a statewide referendum. And while the issue has generated dueling campaigns in other states, Maine's lack of public debate on the controversial issue has left many election watchers perplexed.

''I'm stunned,'' said Christian Potholm, a Bowdoin College political science professor and part-time pollster. ''I've never seen a contentious national issue get less recognition than this.''

(Marijuananews note: Well, he might also look for reporting on the number of marijuana arrests. Or on Dutch marijuana policies. Or on what is happening in Canada. The DEAland media continue their black-out on all of these topics.)

Nearly 70 percent of Mainers support the limited medical use of marijuana according to a telephone survey of 400 residents conducted in September by

Critical Insights, a Portland polling firm. There is no organized opposition to the initiative, and Potholm predicted that in the absence of public debate, the marijuana question is likely to attract the support of at least 60 percent of those casting ballots in the Nov. 2 referendum.

See
Gallup Poll Shows 73% Favor Medical Marijuana;
29% Favor Outright "Legalization"!
So What Are The Politicians Really Afraid Of?

Mary Ellen Fitzgerald, who manages Critical Insights, said favorable responses on the initiative span the political spectrum. Seventy-five percent of unenrolled voters, 72 percent of Democrats, and 54 percent of Republicans polled support the measure.

Should the measure pass, members of Americans for Medical Rights and the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws say Maine would become the first New England state and the sixth in the nation to legalize possession of small amounts of marijuana for certain medical conditions.

''I suspect Mainers will affirm this for the rest of the country,'' said Allen St. Pierre, a former Belfast, Maine, resident who now works as a spokesman for NORML in Washington, DC. ''One-fifth of the US population in five states have already affirmed these medical initiatives.''

Still, there are those in Maine concerned that the narrow application of the proposal may be a smokescreen for organizations that would like to see marijuana legalized for recreational use. Critics claim marijuana is a ''gateway drug'' that leads to the use of harder and more addictive narcotics like cocaine and heroin.

See
"Those who insist on keeping the plant illegal bear a serious degree of moral responsibility for young marijuana users who do go on to use cocaine, heroin, PCP or other genuinely dangerous or addictive drugs."
Alan Bock, of the Orange County Register On the Real Gateway

''This is a ruse,'' said Portland Police Chief Michael Chitwood. ''The real reason they're doing this is to legalize marijuana for trafficking.''

Meanwhile, Maine Governor Angus S. King announced his opposition to the initiative last week along with the Maine Medical Association, which approved a condemnation of medical marijuana use last month.

See
"Maine doctors should check to see if there's a drug available
that will give them some artificial courage."
Great Column

But law enforcement associations that have traditionally taken front-line positions on drug issues in Maine have remained silent on the referendum question.

''I don't understand why either,'' said Michael Povich, district attorney in Maine's Washington and Hancock counties. ''The Maine Prosecutors Association has taken positions in the past on legislation, although not usually on referendums. Maybe we really weren't aware of it. But I can tell you that I'm against it.''

Recent events nationally seem to suggest that opponents like Povich and Chitwood are losing ground in the national debate over access to marijuana by those suffering from debilitating illnesses commonly associated with a condition known as ''wasting syndrome.'' Last year, the Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association concluded, marijuana should be available to those patients who ''do not adequately respond to current available therapies.''

In March, the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine said ''short-term use'' of the drug was ''appropriate'' under certain conditions, adding that no evidence existed to suggest availability of medicinal marijuana would increase drug abuse. Last month, the 9th Circuit US Court of Appeals ordered a lower court judge to reconsider a 1998 ruling that closed down so-called cannabis clubs in California.
See
NORML Analysis of Federal Appeals Court Ruling On Medical Marijuana Clubs
-- NORML Weekly PR

The Drug Free America Foundation has tried to organize opposition in all of the states where the measure has passed. Katherine Ford, who oversees activities at the group's headquarters in St. Petersburg, Fla., said her organization is frequently out-financed and out-maneuvered by advocates like Americans for Medical Rights and National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. She said she was perplexed by the lack of opposition in Maine.
See
Prohibitionist Propaganda Organization Issues Press Release
Offering Their "Expert Opinion" On The Appeals Court Oakland Ruling
and
The Party Line Versus Reality On  Medical Marijuana.
Prohibitionism Is Being Destroyed By Its Own Delusions.
Analysis By Richard Cowan and 1 Article
''I can't explain it,'' Ford said. ''It's been the darndest thing. We haven't seen things happening in Maine. I don't know if people in Maine are just naturally laid-back or what.''

Craig Brown, who is spearheading the referendum effort for Mainers for Medical Rights, http://www.mainers.org  estimates his organization will have raised nearly $500,000 in its two-year effort to put the question on the ballot. As proposed, the law would not subject Maine patients to criminal prosecution for marijuana possession as long as they have their doctor's consent to use the drug.

The law stipulates patients must suffer from persistent nausea, vomiting, or severe loss of appetite to get a physician's approval. Those ''wasting syndrome'' conditions are frequently associated as side effects from treatment for AIDS, chemotherapy, and some glaucoma treatments. Patients experiencing severe seizures or persistent muscle spasms associated with other debilitating diseases would also be eligible to possess marijuana.

Patients could possess no more than 1 ounces of marijuana at any one time and could have six marijuana plants, with no more than three being mature enough to produce a usable drug.

Ford, of the Drug Free America Foundation, said the Maine initiative is fraught with loopholes that allows virtually anyone to say they have a condition justifying the use of medicinal marijuana. Because the word ''approve'' is substituted for ''prescribe'' in the initiative, Ford said a physician's approval of the drug's use falsely implies the control one expects from a written prescription.

In any case, the reporter should have explained this point.)

But federal approval of a drug for the terminally ill is not likely to be a pivotal factor in the minds of Maine voters, according to Potholm.

''I would say Mainers have a tradition of live and let live,'' the Bowdoin professor said. ''I think that in the abstract - forgetting all other arguments - when you think of someone dying of AIDS or cancer, I'm not surprised 70 percent of those people polled would want to ease their suffering. Of course they would. Who wouldn't?'