Suetaz

Jr Drug czar stumps against I-148

By ALLISON FARRELL | Independent Record | Oct. 7, 2004

HELENA — A visit from U.S. Deputy Drug Czar Scott Burns Wednesday brought out a dozen protesters from around the state, who said his anti-Marijuana message takes aim at Montana's sick and dying patients.

Burns, who made a stop in Helena while on a multi-city Montana tour, spent most of his brief time talking against Initiative 148, a measure on the Nov. 2 ballot that would permit some patients to smoke Marijuana for medical purposes.

‘‘I'm not here to tell everyone how to vote,'' Burns said. ‘‘But I am here to talk to you about the realities of Marijuana.''

[Suetaznote: It's too bad Burns doesn't have a clue about reality or Marijuana.]

Burns said medical Marijuana laws send the wrong message to children about the drug, since no ‘‘credible'' medical authority, such as the American Medical Association, has ever reported that Marijuana is an effective medicine.

Burns said he doesn't doubt that Marijuana makes terminally ill patients ‘‘feel better,'' but said the logic doesn't hold, since other illicit drugs would have the same effect.

[Suetaznote: If other "illicit" drugs worked, they'd be using those drugs and not Marijuana! Nothing else works like Marijuana does to relieve pain and all the other side affects that legal prescription opiates cause! The man obviously has no clue or care in the world. I can't believe Burns gets paid with taxpayer money to tell lies to the taxpayers! ]

‘‘That doesn't mean we prescribe crack cocaine,'' Burns said. ‘‘There are better and more effective treatments than Marijuana.''

[Suetaznote: Prove it! These people using Marijuana for medicine have already tried all the 'approved' drugs and have proven them ineffective or causing more harmful side effects! The truth is there, stop ignoring it!]

But supporters of the medical Marijuana initiative said Burns' isn't telling — or doesn't know — the whole story.

Proponents say smoking the plant relieves nausea, increases appetite, reduces muscle spasms, relieves chronic pain and reduces pressure in the eyes. It can be used to treat the symptoms of AIDS, cancer, multiple sclerosis and glaucoma, among other diseases, they say.


Photo by Eliza Wiley IR Staff - Montanans supporting and working for I-148, the initiative for the legalization of medical Marijuana, protested in front of the Arcade Block in Helena, where White House Deputy Drug Czar Scott Burns campaigned against the ballot issue Wednesday.

Protester Teresa Michalski of Helena said Marijuana was the only substance that could calm the stomach of her 29-year-old son, Travis Michalski, after he underwent chemotherapy to treat the rare blood cancer known as Hodgkin's disease. Smoking Marijuana was the only way he kept his pain pills down, she said.

And Marijuana also helped ease the incredible anxiety her son faced every day, knowing he would die a young father, she added.

‘‘You could see the relief in his eyes,'' Teresa Michalski said. Her son died in December 2003.

Burns said it's his job to travel the country and talk to people ‘‘in the trenches'' of the drug war. Wednesday, Burns met with addiction professionals from the Boyd Andrew Community Service Center.

As he spoke and said Marijuana has become a rite of passage for middle-school students, the drug counselors nodded their heads in agreement.

Nationwide, there are more people under the age of 18 getting treatment for Marijuana addiction than for all other illicit drugs combined, he said. And it's easier for young children to get Marijuana than it is for them to get alcohol, he added.

Tracy Moseman, a prevention specialist with Boyd-Andrew, agreed with Burns' message. She said the youths she works with ‘‘almost always'' point to Marijuana as the gateway drug that led them to try harder substances, such as methamphetamine.

‘‘Once they've broken that threshold, it's easier for them to say 'I'll try a little cocaine','' Moseman said in an interview after the press conference.

And while Burns said youth drug use has risen in states that have passed medical Marijuana laws, Marijuana supporters say otherwise.

A new California study shows that teen use of Marijuana has dropped since a medical Marijuana law was adopted there in 1996. The study reports that the number of ninth-graders using Marijuana dropped 45 percent over the last eight years, from 34.2 percent of ninth-graders reported using Marijuana in 1996 to 18.8 percent this year.

Burns, however, cautioned that federal law trumps state law, and said no state initiative permitting the medical use of Marijuana can circumvent the federal law prohibiting the possession and use of Marijuana.

‘‘There's no safe harbor,'' Burns said.

[Suetaznote: He means there is no safe haven from the DEA! They will find you and destroy your life, wherever you are!]

Medical Marijuana was approved by voters in Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. In Hawaii, a law was passed by the legislature and signed by the governor in 2000. In Vermont, a law was passed by the legislature and allowed to become law without the governor's signature in May 2004, the Marijuana Policy Project reports.

[Suetaznote: I have no idea what Scott Burns looks like, Google didn't turn up any images, but I am picturing the sniveling little Burnsie from the Simpsons and hearing his voice when I read the junior drug czar's comments. I need something for comic relief after reading this crap. I don't know how Burns, Ashcroft or Walters or any of the like manage to sleep at night or feel any pride in themselves, knowing the lives that they are destroying with their lies.]

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