cannabisnews.com: Pot Initiative Draws Federal Attention





Pot Initiative Draws Federal Attention
Posted by CN Staff on April 03, 2003 at 10:25:19 PT
By Quinn O’Brien and Sana Syed
Source: Columbia Missourian
Proposition 1, the proposed marijuana initiative that will appear on Tuesday’s ballot, has attracted the attention of the White House and brought controversial ads to the papers. With the election drawing near and a poll showing that undecided voters could be pivotal, organizations on both sides of the issue are stepping up their campaign efforts.
Scott Burns, director of state and local affairs for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, will speak at a luncheon today at the Peachtree Center. A news release from President Bush’s office said federal officials will meet with Columbia leaders to discuss the “dangers of marijuana.”Burns was invited to Columbia by Peggy Quigg, executive director of the Jefferson City-based ACT Missouri, which has been campaigning against the measure.Quigg said she hopes this event will give voters the opportunity to hear someone from the federal government speak about marijuana. She said she expects Burns to address what she said are conflicts that the proposed ordinance would raise with federal and state laws. Supporters speak out Proponents of Proposition 1 are angry about the attention from the White House and the goals of the speakers at the luncheon.“This is really a blatant move by Washington insiders to meddle in a local election that only affects Columbians,” said Anthony Johnson, president of the Columbia Alliance for Patients and Education, who helped write the proposed ordinance.Questions of the legality of Burns’ visit were raised by local lawyer Dan Viets, a proponent of Proposition 1. He said election law clearly prohibits public officials from campaigning for or against an issue using public money. He filed a complaint Wednesday with the Missouri Ethics Commission.Kevin Sabet, senior speech writer with the drug policy office in Washington, D.C., said that Burns was not coming to campaign. “This is certainly appropriate,” Sabet said. “We’re responding to an invitation from the local community. If you think about it, this is what we do, drug prevention.”While the federal government is footing the bill for Burns’ trip, ACT Missouri will sponsor the luncheon, which is free to those who registered in advance. Quigg said that ACT Missouri receives about $400,000 a year in public funds, but that the luncheon will be financed from $80,000 worth of private donations made to the organization.“I’m not using public finds to campaign against Proposition 1,” Quigg said, adding that the proposal “gives people false hopes and sets them up for getting into a higher degree of trouble. Voters need to be informed on all sides, and that includes the federal level.” Groups place ads As the campaign heats up, charges are being made on both sides about the accuracy of campaign ads.Students for a Sensible Drug Policy, a group supporting the proposition, placed an ad in Tuesday’s issue of The Maneater urging people to vote yes. The ad says that “students only lose their financial aid for drug convictions under state and federal law.”The student group placed the ad in response to a local newspaper ad that ACT ran on Sunday. The ACT ad said that students convicted of a drug offense are not eligible for government aid and that “it does not matter where the conviction is made, city court, state court or federal court.” Financial aid details disputed Financial aid has been one of the leading issues in the Proposition 1 debate. The proposed ordinance would send offenders found in possession of 35 grams or less of marijuana to municipal court. Proponents insist that convictions in municipal court, rather than state or federal court, would not jeopardize federal financial aid for students.“Proponents make it seem like this is cut and dried,” Quigg said, adding that she thinks students would lose their loan money even if convicted in municipal court. The word “conviction” on the aid application, she said, is open to interpretation. Students convicted in municipal court, she said, could still answer “yes” to a question about drug convictions and lose their federal money.“This is a lie,” Viets said. “The wording of the act of Congress makes this issue perfectly clear: Conviction under state and federal law will result in the loss of federal financial aid.”The official language of a U.S. Department of Education Web site regarding financial aid reads, “Has the student ever been convicted of possessing or selling illegal drugs? A federal law suspends federal student aid eligibility for students convicted under federal or state law of possession of drugs (not including alcohol and tobacco). ... Count only federal or state convictions.”“At best, the out-of-town opponents of Proposition 1 are just wrong,” Johnson said. “At worst, they are lying to the citizens of Columbia.”During a three-year period that ended in 2002, 38 MU students were denied financial aid because of drug convictions, university officials have reported.Group surveys more than 500 likely voters On another front, Johnson said he was “encouraged and excited” about the results of a voter survey financed by his group. The survey of 523 likely voters was conducted from March 18 to March 20 by the Center for Advanced Social Research at MU. It found 44.7 percent in favor, 39.8 percent opposed and 15.4 percent undecided. The poll has a 5 percent margin of error.Johnson said CAPE will be mailing postcards, going door-to-door and phoning voters in the final days. The group reported raising $8,179 as of March 27, and had spent $2,481. This amount does not include the $2,800 cost of the poll.CAPE recently received $10,000 from the Marijuana Policy Project, a national marijuana advocacy group. The money will be used to cover the cost of the poll and phone bank, said Amy Fritz, CAPE’s deputy treasurer. Source: Columbia Missourian (MO)Author: Quinn O’Brien and Sana SyedPublished: April 3, 2003 Copyright: 2003 Columbia MissourianContact: editor digmo.com Website: http://www.digmo.com/Related Articles & Web Sites:SSDPhttp://www.ssdp.org/Marijuana Policy Projecthttp://www.mpp.org/Infographic: Pot Vote Trends http://digmo.com/news/images/0403pot.gifProp 1 Pits Proponents Against Law Enforcement http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15849.shtmlMarijuana Proposition Worries Law Enforcementhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15845.shtmlWhite House Weighs in on Pot Issue http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15835.shtml 
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Comment #5 posted by afterburner on April 04, 2003 at 21:59:10 PT:
Cheap Shots.
The comedians, Cheech and Chong, had a reputation for smoking primo cannabis. They would not settle for ditchweed. Besides, they are fictional characters. Get over it.ego destruction or ego transcendence, that is the question.
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Comment #4 posted by FoM on April 03, 2003 at 21:01:20 PT
News Brief from KRCG.com
Burns Says Prop 1 Step to Pot Legalization
 Columbia, 4/3/2003 
 
A representative from the Bush White House spent time in Columbia speaking out against marijuana. Scott Burns is the deputy director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. He opposes a proposed Columbia ordinance that would reduce penalties for those who use marijuana. Burns calls Proposition 1 a step towards the complete legalization of pot.“The President and the Drug Czar in the country take marijuana very seriously. It is not the one-percent ditch weed that Cheech and Chong smoked thirty years ago. This is 6% to 14% THC marijuana. Some of it is coming over the border from Canada,” says Burns.Supporters of proposition one are accusing Burns of spreading misinformation. They claim he is misleading voters about how the ordinance would not protect federal financial aid for college students caught with marijuana. Burns says students would still lose their aid because federal law overrides city ordinances.
 http://www.krcg.com/news_details.asp?story_number=3851
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Comment #3 posted by John Tyler on April 03, 2003 at 20:15:38 PT
Why are the Bush folks so worried?
The Bush Administration is worried about this. Here they are sending a big guns out to a small town to try to sway the vote on a local ordinance. Lets hope the will of the people is heard at the ballot box and not squelched by the Federal overseers.
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on April 03, 2003 at 17:53:55 PT
News Brief from ABC 17 KMIZ
Prop 1 Brings in National AttentionMelissa Goss Scott Burns with the Office of National Drug Control Policy came to Columbia on behalf of the White House talking about the dangers of decriminalizing marijuana.But people supporting the ballot measure said he had no business coming to Columbia to spread what they call misinformation.In a room decorated with masks made by drug rehab patients local, state and federal officials told the media why Proposition 1 is bad for Columbia.Burns was sent with a message from the White House. The anti-drug activist used tobacco to demonstrate just how much marijuana the ballot measure is talking about.If Proposition 1 passes it would send cases involving less than 35 grams of marijuana to municipal court instead of state or federal court.Proponents said the idea is to prevent students from losing their financial aid but Burns said if it is approved, students may not be protected.“It says only state and federal convictions. With prop 1 it will be under city law so students won't lose aid,” Burns said.Burns said passing Prop 1 is taking a step toward legalizing marijuana.But supporters said the measure will decriminalize those who make a small mistake.“We don't take away financial aid from someone caught with illegal gun, murder, robbery, but we'll take away the education of someone with a small amount of marijuana,” said Prop 1 author Anthony Johnson.“Why would we vote for something that will raise the number of intoxicated people on our highways and communities,” Burns said.Also Thursday, Dr. Paul Robinson argued against Prop 1, saying adolescent drug use goes up when the perceived dangers of the drug go down. But supporters gave the example of Ann Arbor, Michigan, which has had a similar city ordinance for 30 years saying drug use there is below the national average. 
 
http://www.kmiz.com/news/headlines/284856.html
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Comment #1 posted by Virgil on April 03, 2003 at 12:24:40 PT
What Cokie Roberts said
I watched "This Week" with Cokie Roberts almost every week. About the only thing I remember from her is "That all politics is local." This really is a big vote because it will show the global warming to the frozen position of total prohibition and its zero tolerance mantra. The voters of Columbia would do us all a favor if they would vote in record numbers and signal the thaw is coming.It is a big vote and the voting habit for reformers should be injected into us all. Show the prohibitionists the rising tide, Columbia. And tell the neewspapers you do not represent a grass roots movement. You represent a budding movement that started with the seeds that Jack Herer planted- the seeds of freedom.
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