DARE TO READ ABOUT MARIJUANA

Pot Advocates Ask DARE Officers to Read Book on Pot Vs. Alcohol

Local pot advocate Mason Tvert is daring officers to read his book.

The publisher of Tvert's 2009 release, "Marijuana is Safer: So Why
Are We Driving People to Drink?", is distributing free copies of the
pro-marijuana book this week at a Drug Abuse Resistance Education
(DARE) conference in Cincinnati.

DARE officers and instructors at the training conference are being
encouraged to read the book and then take its message back to
students that marijuana is safer than alcohol N a message that has
propelled Tvert into local and national stardom for his efforts to
legalize marijuana.

Tvert is encouraging DARE officers and instructors to "dare to admit
that marijuana is safer than alcohol."

"For years DARE has been sending a very dangerous message that
alcohol is a perfectly acceptable and enjoyable form of intoxication
for adults, yet marijuana is just too harmful and should never be
allowed as an alternative," said Tvert. "DARE conference attendees
will surely be encouraged to continue spreading this misguided and
potentially dangerous message, so we decided to offer them a
comprehensive, fact-based examination of these two substances that
they can take home and share with their students."

For his part, Sgt. Brian Saupe, state coordinator for the Colorado
Association of DARE Officers, said yesterday from Cincinnati where he
is attending the conference that marijuana can be a deadly drug when
used with alcohol.

"One fact that really illustrates against what they're saying, and
that's that marijuana prevents nausea, and there's numerous cases
where college kids who are binge drinking have smoked marijuana, and
it prevents the nausea, so when they overdrink, they don't vomit up
the excess alcohol, and then they die," he told the Denver Daily News
by phone. "So, right there, I can tell you that marijuana is a
danger, and particularly when it comes to partying - they party heavy
at college, they're smoking marijuana and they're drinking in excess
- - the anti-nausea effects of the THC prevents their body from purging
the excess alcohol."

Tvert fired back, arguing that he does not know of a single
documented case of an alcohol-related death being attributed to
marijuana use. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
attribute more than 30,000 deaths per year to alcohol use, whereas
they do not list a single death attributable to marijuana, he said.

"Officer Saupe makes the case that marijuana is safer than alcohol
far better than I ever could," quipped Tvert. "Since he understands
that alcohol can kill someone in one sitting, I trust he agrees that
college students would be safer using marijuana instead."

Saupe said that if he is handed a copy of Tvert's book, he would read
it for "informational" reasons.

As executive director of Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation
(SAFER), Tvert compelled Denver voters to legalize the simple
possession of marijuana in 2005.

When police continued to arrest people for the possession of one
ounce or less of marijuana, Tvert convinced voters in 2007 to make
the police department promise to make marijuana their "lowest law
enforcement priority."

His book - co-written by fellow pot experts Paul Armentano, deputy
director of The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana
Laws, and Steve Fox, director of state campaigns for the Marijuana
Policy Project - uses research and scientific evidence to compare and
contrast the relative harms of both marijuana and alcohol.

In August 2009, the book made its way to No. 14 on Amazon.com's top
100 bestsellers, making "Marijuana is Safer" the all-time top-selling
marijuana-related book on Amazon.com.

The pro-pot community is also concerned that DARE America Chairman
Skip Miller recently released an op-ed to the San Jose Mercury News
opposing a marijuana legalization initiative facing California voters
this November. He claimed that marijuana "mushes up your brain,"
"lowers inhibitions," and "makes users engage in risky behavior."

Tvert is also concerned that the DARE America Web site highlights the
"Official Parents Guide" by DARE founding director Glenn Levant,
which describes social drinking as "an acceptable and pleasurable
activity for millions of Americans."

"It relaxes you, curbs stress, and chases away inhibitions" continues
the description.

Marijuana advocates take great offense to this description.

"If lives weren't at risk this would almost be comical," said Tvert.