cannabisnews.com: Question 9 Supporters, Opponents No Middle Ground





Question 9 Supporters, Opponents No Middle Ground
Posted by CN Staff on October 20, 2002 at 08:37:06 PT
By Ed Vogel, Review-Journal Capital Bureau
Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal 
A popular T-shirt worn this summer by New Yorkers featured the logos of the Yankees and Mets baseball teams. Under the Yankees logo was the phrase "Your brain." Under the Mets logo were the words "Your brain on drugs." The Yankees finished atop their division. The Mets ended up in last place amid allegations that seven players were regular smokers of marijuana, a performance that reflects the concerns of opponents of the ballot proposition that would make Nevada the first state with legal pot. 
"Look what happens to kids who get into marijuana," said Dorothy North, former state Substance Abuse Commission Chairwoman and Question 9 opponent. "Bright and sharp kids lose their edge. Their energy to get out and go after it is gone." North operates the Vitality House rehabilitation center in Elko. She said more and more of her patients are young people having problems because of marijuana use. "We know it causes brain damage like an early senility," she said. "It also causes short-term memory losses in people who are heavy users, three or more joints a week. It is not a safe drug." Billy Rogers, leader of Nevadans for Responsible Law Enforcement, points to studies that show 80 million Americans have smoked marijuana at least once and that 11 million are regular users. Regardless of laws against marijuana, these people will continue to use the drug, Rogers said. Rather than make them criminals, the state should recognize reality and allow them to smoke their pot in the privacy of their homes without fear of arrest. "No one in this campaign advocates the use of marijuana," said Rogers, a Texas-born political consultant whose organization collected 110,000 signatures to put Question 9 on the ballot. "Despite all the good intentions of the drug czar (John Walters), it is clear they cannot stop responsible adults from using marijuana. It is time we tried something different." Question 9 would change the state constitution and allow adult Nevadans to possess 3 ounces or less of marijuana. Use in public and by juveniles would remain illegal. The most recent Review-Journal survey, done in August, showed 55 percent of respondents oppose Question 9, while 40 percent favor passage. Five percent are undecided. An earlier poll showed opposition and support almost evenly split. The measure would need to be approved Nov. 5 and again in 2004 to change the law. In addition, the proposal would require the state Legislature in 2005 to set up a system for the cultivation, taxation, distribution and sale of marijuana. Pot would be sold in state-licensed stores. Low-cost marijuana also would be sold to the 200 people in Nevada who have permission to use the drug for medical reasons. Holly Brady is one of those people. The 49-year-old Las Vegan has multiple sclerosis. She smoked pot illegally for 10 years before recently securing state permission to grow marijuana plants. "It is miracle medicine," said Brady, who is featured in Nevadans for Responsible Law Enforcement campaign materials. Her husband, Tom, said she used to have nausea every morning and that they closed the windows so her screams would not scare the neighbors. "She was not an advocate of marijuana," Tom Brady said. "She tried it a few times in college and didn't like it. But she tried it and it worked. She gets around. She is not in a wheelchair. Some days are better than others." But Holly Brady's attempts to grow marijuana have been futile. Under Nevada's medical marijuana program, participants can grow as many as seven plants for medical use. The state Department of Agriculture, however, does not provide instructions or the seeds to grow the plant. Seeds must be found clandestinely, although some exotic-sounding, highly potent varieties can purchased from Web sites, mostly based in Canada and the Netherlands. Prices often top $5 per seed. Because of their inability to grow quality plants, the Bradys back Question 9. They want the state, or its approved growers, to provide them marijuana. Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, has visited Nevada twice this fall in an effort to persuade residents to reject Question 9. The drug czar has challenged those who contend marijuana brings medical benefits. He says the reports are unproven and that people who need THC, the main active chemical in marijuana, can acquire it in Morinal, a prescription drug without the harmful effects of marijuana. "On the face of it, the idea that desperately sick people could be helped by smoking an intoxicating weed seems unlikely, even medieval," Walters wrote in a column last month in the San Francisco Chronicle. "It is, in fact, absurd." He charged that heavy use of marijuana induces paranoia and even violence. Las Vegas police reported recently that traces of marijuana were found in one-third of the people booked into the Clark County Detention Center on domestic violence charges. The National Institutes of Health found that someone who smokes five marijuana joints per week takes in as many cancer-causing chemicals as someone who smokes a pack of cigarettes a week. One joint deposits about four times more tar into the lungs than a filtered tobacco cigarette. Marijuana also is much stronger than it was back in the days of the Woodstock nation. A study at the federal government's marijuana farm at the University of Mississippi found the content of THC in sinsemilla marijuana today averages 12.7 percent. Studies conducted in 1977 showed THC levels in marijuana at 3.2 percent. But support for legal marijuana is growing in the United States. A USA Today/Gallup Poll in August 2001 found 34 percent of Americans believe marijuana should be legal. That compares with 25 percent support in 1980 and only 12 percent when the first poll was conducted in 1969. Despite Walters' assertion that legalizing marijuana will lead to more use of the drug, use in the Netherlands is half that of the United States. The Dutch have tolerated the use of drugs since 1975. People can smoke marijuana and even shoot up heroin without reprisal, although the drugs are not legal. Police look the other way as long as users do not cause trouble. According to a study in 1997, 33 percent of Americans over the age of 12 have tried marijuana at least once. In the Netherlands, 15.6 percent of the population over the age of 12 there has tried marijuana, according to a similar study. Marijuana or hashish is sold in 5-gram packets in more than 800 coffee shops in the Netherlands, and catering to pot smokers has become a cottage industry in Amsterdam. Tourists, many of them Americans, flock to the coffee shops to sample the world's highest grade marijuana. Growers compete for the annual "Cannabis Cup." That Las Vegas could become another Amsterdam is not ruled out by Question 9. Language in the ballot question does prohibit tourists from purchasing marijuana sold in Nevada, but Rogers said the ultimate decision on whether to let visitors indulge would be made by the Legislature in 2005. What bothers Dr. Joey Villaflor, chairman of the Nevada Board of Health, is that more juveniles would acquire the drug were it legal and more drivers would get behind the wheel while high. "It will be seen as an OK thing to do" by children, he said. Villaflor said road fatalities will increase with legalization. "It is already difficult to drive" because of alcohol abusers, he said. "It will become more difficult when more drivers will be impaired because of marijuana." STOP DUI Executive Director Sandy Heverly agrees. "I honestly believe this is not the future we want for Nevada," said Heverly, a member of Nevadans Against Legalizing Marijuana, a coalition of organizations that oppose legal marijuana. "It comes down to a matter of what is right and wrong." She points to a state Office of Traffic Safety study that showed 57 people died on Nevada highways between 1997-2001 in accidents involving drivers who had been using marijuana. But some of those drivers also were abusing alcohol and other drugs, according to Michael Perondi, a staff member at the office. Those fatalities include the six teenagers who died in 2000 when a motor vehicle hit them while they picked up trash along Interstate 15. Driver Jessica Williams received an 18- to 48-year sentence in prison for the fatalities. Although a jury ruled Williams wasn't impaired, it found her system contained levels of marijuana above the legal limit. And the 21-year-old driver accused of causing the accident that killed Las Vegas Sun executive editor Sandra Thompson in August had a marijuana level seven times the standard, authorities say. "You only have to look at the statistics and speculate how many more fatalities we will have if we legalized marijuana," Heverly said. But Rogers maintains juveniles would find it harder to acquire legal marijuana. Teens won't be able to buy pot from state-licensed stores. And, he predicted, drug dealers would disappear. "We know what happened with (the end of) Prohibition," Rogers said. "It put the bootleggers out of business. When Question 9 becomes law, you put the drug dealers out of business." North considers Rogers' predictions rubbish. From operating a drug rehabilitation center, North knows children acquire alcohol from their parents. If marijuana were legal, then children would get their parents' pot, she insisted. Even if they didn't, some youngsters would breathe marijuana smoke from being in the same room. They would receive a contact high. "You almost never see people doing one drug," North said. "They use methamphetamines as a stimulator and alcohol and marijuana to come down." Neither North nor Heverly wants to punish drug abusers. Both back the current law that makes possession of an ounce a misdemeanor punishable by a $600 fine. They favor mandatory drug treatment for all users. "We didn't declare a war on drugs in this country," North said. "We declared a war on the victims." Heverly's biggest concern is that Question 9 supporters will win votes because they have more money for TV ads. Rogers said his organization has raised $1.6 million for its campaign to pass Question 9. Of that total, $385,000 was spent to gather signatures on qualifying petitions last summer. Another $600,000 has gone for advertisements that will run between now and Election Day. Almost all of the money to Nevadans for Responsible Law Enforcement comes from the Marijuana Policy Project of Washington, D.C. Its major donor is Progressive Insurance Chief Executive Officer Peter Lewis. Heverly has reason to worry about the lack of commercial time for her side. Recent anti-Question 9 ads running on TV have been sponsored by The Committee to Keep Nevada Respectable, which has raised only about $200,000 in its drive to defeat legal marijuana. The political action committee is the fund-raising arm of Nevadans Against Legalizing Marijuana. It was created by Lt. Stan Olsen, the Las Vegas police legislative lobbyist, following a Sept. 27 news conference in which police spoke out against Question 9. Rachel Wilkie, a Rogich Communications representative who works for the committee, said the donations have helped the group prepare three different advertisements. But none of them will receive as much airplay as Rogers' advertisements, especially in Northern Nevada where they will run only a few times, she said. Wilkie said the Committee to Keep Nevada Respectable continues to seek donations, primarily from businesses. "We are doing everything we can, but they are way ahead," Wilkie added. Despite being discouraged by the fund-raising gap, Heverly still expects residents will defeat legal marijuana. "No one can argue Nevada doesn't have its vices, but once you get away from the glitz and glamour of the Strip, we have a very conservative community in Las Vegas," she said. "We have values and morals we live by each day. I hope that voice will be heard through their votes."Note: Marijuana touted as 'miracle medicine' by one side, harmful narcotic by other.Complete Title: Question 9 Supporters, Opponents Find No Middle GroundSource: Las Vegas Review-Journal (NV)Author: Ed Vogel, Review-Journal Capital BureauPublished: Sunday, October 20, 2002Copyright: 2002 Las Vegas Review-JournalContact: letters lvrj.comWebsite: http://www.lvrj.com/Related Articles & Web Sites:NRLEhttp://www.nrle.org/Marijuana Policy Projecthttp://www.mpp.org/Nevada Pushes Next Frontier: Legalizing Pot http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14503.shtmlPondering The Ballot Questionshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14491.shtmlAn 'Out-of-State' Campaign http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14448.shtml 
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Comment #8 posted by krutch on October 21, 2002 at 15:08:38 PT:
We know it causes brain damage???
There is no credible scientific evidence that MJ causes brain damage or early senility. She is getting her data from 1980's drug war propaganda. It is from the commercial with the phony EEG readings. Heavy Alcohol use is known to cause brain damage. This drug is distributed and taxed by the state.Here is a wonderfully scientific tidbit:"He charged that heavy use of marijuana induces paranoia and even violence. Las Vegas police reported recently that traces of marijuana were found in one-third of the people booked into the Clark County Detention Center on domestic violence charges."So what? This is causation. 100% of the people in Clarke County Detention Center drank milk. So the milk made them criminals. Silly is it not? It is the same argument. Even if we believe that less than 33% percent of the general population of Clarke County have smoked mj in the last month it is a bankrupt argument. It means nothing.To study this issue correctly you would have to have a study group who smokes mj and a control group that does not. You would have to study both of these groups over a long period of time and compare them at the end of the study. You would have to make sure the study groups pair nicely in other ways like annual income, and culture. You would have to make sure that no other drugs get involved so as not to throw off your data. Trying to prove that a drug leads to domestic violence without a controlled study is impossible.Social science is not my area of expertise but I know a logical fallacy when I see one. Unfortunately many sheeple believe this kind of nonsense.
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Comment #7 posted by john wayne on October 21, 2002 at 13:00:48 PT
baseball players should use cocaine
if they want that extra performance edge. Cocaine user Darryl Strawberry was a perennial major league first-string until the prohibitionist state jailed him.
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Comment #6 posted by gloovins on October 20, 2002 at 23:45:31 PT
help!
"We know it causes brain damage like an early senility," she saidNo, hon, conversing with someone as ignorant as you will do this as well.Legalize it ya'll. Stop people like this from being quoted in our newspapers.
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Comment #5 posted by FoM on October 20, 2002 at 20:57:16 PT
firedog 
There sure is a lot of truth in what you said. I sometimes thing they don't want to legalize Cannabis because Cannabis helps a person to look at life in different ways and thinking people aren't very good at doing what they are told to do without being told why.
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Comment #4 posted by firedog on October 20, 2002 at 20:31:47 PT
Getting out and going after It
"Bright and sharp kids lose their edge. Their energy to get out and go after it is gone." said Dorothy North, former state Substance Abuse Commission Chairwoman.I think I know what she means. At one point in my life, I was one of those "bright and sharp kids" getting out and going after It.The problem was, I didn't really know what It was. I had never really thought too much about It, or why exactly It was worthy of my energy and devotion.Many people go through their whole lives chasing after It, only to find that they can never succeed, because as soon as they get close to where they thought It was, It has already moved further away. Since their self-esteem is based on how close they are getting to It, they are never happy and are reduced to such things as gobbling Prozac. Since It has no meaning in and of Itself, people whose lives are based on chasing It down find themselves wishing for a purpose, whether they are conscious of It or not.One day, my inquisitive nature finally got around to the inevitable. I started questioning It; I asked why I should spend my life chasing It down. And I got no answer back except, "so you can feel good about yourself" which was really code for "so Society can feel good about you." Measure yourself by Society's Yardstick; it tells you how good a person you are, and how good you are allowed to feel about yourself.Once I started looking, I discovered that there were much better ways to achieve happiness than by getting out and going after It. I discovered that It was only a small slice of the pie, and not necessarily an admirable thing to chase after. Cannabis was one of the things that made me start to question It, and I owe this plant a great debt, because cannabis helped to save me from a lifetime of chasing It down. Cannabis opened doors for me that I was barely aware of. And I was free of Society's Yardstick.This is the real reason that the top anti's really fight against cannabis. They are the Powers That Be, the "leaders of Society", and to keep their elite status, they must maintain the status quo. But if people stop measuring themselves by Society's Yardstick, the Powers That Be lose their most important instrument of control over the masses, and what would that do to profit margins?
 
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Comment #3 posted by canaman on October 20, 2002 at 11:41:26 PT
off topic...ABC reports Christians for cannabis...
Good ABC article about how Christian groups are calling the drug war hypocritical and immoral.http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/christians_drugs020620.html
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Comment #2 posted by canaman on October 20, 2002 at 11:04:16 PT
Prohibitionism leads to brain damage!
And inability to express thoughts coherently."Bright and sharp kids lose their edge. Their energy to get out and go after it is gone." said Dorothy North, former state Substance Abuse Commission Chairwoman.The former state Substance Abuse Commission Chairwoman sure knows how to abuse the english language.If speaking incohertly wasn't enough, some people look at statistics and see things that aren't there (hallucinations). Example:"I honestly believe this is not the future we want for Nevada," said Sandy Heverly, a member of Nevadans Against Legalizing Marijuana, a coalition of organizations that oppose legal marijuana. "It comes down to a matter of what is right and wrong." She points to a state Office of Traffic Safety study that showed 57 people died on Nevada highways between 1997-2001 in accidents involving drivers who had been using marijuana. But some of those drivers also were abusing alcohol and other drugs, according to Michael Perondi, a staff member at the office. Those fatalities include the six teenagers who died in 2000 when a motor vehicle hit them while they picked up trash along Interstate 15. Driver Jessica Williams received an 18- to 48-year sentence in prison for the fatalities. Although a jury ruled Williams wasn't impaired, it found her system contained levels of marijuana above the legal limit. And the 21-year-old driver accused of causing the accident that killed Las Vegas Sun executive editor Sandra Thompson in August had a marijuana level seven times the standard, authorities say. "You only have to look at the statistics and speculate how many more fatalities we will have if we legalized marijuana," Heverly said. "Speculate" being the key word here since (correct me if I'm wrong) there is NO "legal limit" any amount is above it! Why only seven times above this fictitious limit? Since we're speclating why not 1,000,000 times over the limit? You bone-headed prohibitionists would be funny if you weren't so damn dangerous!
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Comment #1 posted by DdC on October 20, 2002 at 10:39:30 PT
Operation Rescue a Success but the Patients Die!
Thought I'd get some jollies reading the paranoid speculators. I guess Nevada must be full of speculators considering their #1 cash crop is gambling...Modern Reefer Madness ain't much different. Williams wasn't impaired, it found her system contained levels of marijuana above the legal limit.But Williams wasn't impaired! And the 21-year-old driver accused of causing the accident that killed Las Vegas Sun executive editor Sandra Thompson in August had a marijuana level seven times the standard, authorities say. Oh so thats their angle on Reefer Madness, revenge!"You only have to look at the statistics and speculate... I couldn't have described D.E.A.th any better...North knows children acquire alcohol from their parents. If marijuana were legal, then children would get their parents' pot, she insisted. Lets not have any laws enforced here. Can't bust parents for boozing their kids up? Or is that a politically incorrect bust? In Vegas where booze flows from fountains, pushed freely to take the edge off the gamblers. How ethical...If parents get their kids stoned, book em Danno! If you would enforce the booze laws then maybe kids #1 killer wouldn't be booze? Instead of cop profits on forced treatment or wasted funds and time eradicating hemp ditchweed and bothering adult Americans of their personal choice to toke over pickling their livers.some youngsters would breathe marijuana smoke from being in the same room.Then those kids can be tested and the parents charged. Why put single adults in prison?You almost never see people doing one drug," North said. "They use methamphetamines as a stimulator and alcohol and marijuana to come down." To come down? Again the fairies are flying with their paranoid tales of speculation. Thats a good name for WoD. Lets Speculate. Lets dream of a future to keep our treatment profits...For er, the kids of coarse...Neither North nor Heverly wants to punish drug abusers. They favor mandatory drug treatment for all users. North operates the Vitality House rehabilitation center in Elko. We know it (the Vitality House) causes brainwash damage like an early senility,"Forced mandatory treatment of an adult being content toking? Saving them from persuing happiness? Oh the humanity! Lt.Stan Olsen, the Las Vegas police legislative lobbyist, Rachel Wilkie, a Rogich Communications representative who works for the committee to Keep Nevada Respectable...Respectable lies, speculations and paranoia?Peace, Love and Liberty or the Speculating D.E.A.th!...DdC"How many murders, suicides, robberies, criminal assaults, holdups, burglaries and deeds of maniacal insanity it causes each year, especially among the young, can only be conjectured...No one knows, when he places a marijuana cigarette to his lips, whether he will become a joyous reveller in a musical heaven, a mad insensate, a calm philosopher, or a murderer..."As the D.E.A.th list grows...
HARRY J ANSLINGER Commissioner of the US Bureau of Narcotics 1930 1962, STOP DUI Executive Director Sandy Heverly, Dorothy North, former state Substance Abuse Commission Chairwoman operates the Vitality House rehabilitation center in Elko. Lt. Stan Olsen, the Las Vegas police legislative lobbyist, Rachel Wilkie, a Rogich Communications representative who works for the committee to keep Nevada respectable? Sgt. Rick Barela, spokesman for the Las Vegas Metro Police ,
Jack Foote, the spokesman for Ranch Rescue. About 13 volunteers for the group, called Ranch Rescue, Roger Barnett
U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic,
William Schilling ,
Waukesha County District Attorney Paul Bucher,
Preble County,Ohio SWAT team ,
Iron County, Utah Attorney Scott Garrett ,
Assistant U.S. Attorney Samuel Wong ,
Union-Tribune Editorial ,
Clark County, Nevada Deputy District Attorney Gary Booker,
state Sen. Joe Neal the Democratic candidate for governor of Nevada, 
President George W. Bush, 
Vice President Dick Cheney, 
LaRouche organization,
Nevada Board of Health Dr. Joey Villaflor, chairman of the board,
Riverside County,CA prosecutor assigned to the case, Cynthia Brewer,
Bush's Office of National Drug Control Policy appointed drug czar John P. Walters,
D.E.A.th head salesman Asa Hutchinson,
Attorney Germinal John Ashcraft,
Matt Salmon and Janet Napolitano, the current state Attorney General and former U.S. Attorney for Arizona.
Ronald P. Pierini, Sheriff of Douglas County Nevada,
Pima County Arizona cops, Sheriff Clarence Dupnik and County Attorney Barbara LaWall,
DEA spokesman Will Glaspy,
Gregory M. Gassett is assistant special agent in charge for the Seattle Field Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration, 
Pedro Morales, Reno Gazette-Journal, 
Dick Foreman Arizona Republican, Harry J. Anslinger, U.S. Commissioner of Narcotics
Robert Stutman, a former Drug Enforcement Administration agent,
Tom Gardner,
Pennington County (SD) States Attorney Glenn Brenner,
Brad Schreiber, a Belle Fourche,SD Attorney. DEA Chief Administrator Robert Bonner 
Republican attorney general candidate Brian Sandoval, Democrat John Hunt, Non-partisan sheriff's candidates Randy Oaks a police captain, and Bill Young a Las Vegas deputy police chief, Republican district attorney candidate David Roger, Democratic opponent, Mike Davidson, Columbia Police Chief Randy Boehm, Municipal Judge John Whiteside, 
The Arizona Pharmacy Association and the Arizona Society of Health System Pharmacists, Pati Urias, a spokeswoman for the Arizona Attorney General's Office, Pima County,Az Attorney Barbara LaWall, a Democrat, Sgt. Mike Bonin, a DPS spokesman, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Steve Gust, a spokesman, 
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