LIBERTARIAN CANDIDATE TARGETS DRUG LAWS

Reams Conducts 'Reeferendum' Campaign For Lieutenant Governor

Candidate Holds High Hopes For Hemp

Gary Reams' "grass" roots push to reform marijuana laws isn't about winning
the lieutenant governor's race Nov. 6: He knows he won't.

But running a one-issue campaign is the only way voters will get the chance
to protest what he calls "egregious and inhumane" laws that hogtie doctors
and punish recreational users, he said.

"There's a growing constituency that isn't being listened to," the
Libertarian said Thursday. "Marijuana laws have gone too far."

Reams, 45, moved to Lorton a few years ago after living in Prince William
County for 17 years. He characterizes his unusual campaign as a
"reeferendum" designed to give Virginians something its citizens don't have
under state law: the power to place a referendum on the ballot. His
ultimate goal is to effect reform of marijuana laws, he says, not to
propose specific legislation at the state or federal level.

Politicians typically ignore the issue or refuse to take a stand, Reams
said, because "they're afraid of losing votes."

Marijuana, considered a schedule 1 drug under federal law, has been used to
treat symptoms of glaucoma and nausea associated with chemotherapy. In more
recent years, it has been used by AIDS patients to stimulate appetite.

Al Byrne, co-founder of Howardsville-based Patients Out of Time said the
group's exclusive purpose is to promote the use of cannabis as medicine.

Support for the use of medicinal marijuana is strong, Byrne said. He cited
a a 2000 Virginia Tech "Quality of Life" survey undertaken annually for the
Legislative Review, in which 78 percent of respondents favored such use.

"[Patients] are using it," he said. "I get calls all day long. I get
e-mails all day long from people who are using cannabis, and all of them
are using it illegally."

The Virginia Farm Bureau, a nongovernmental voluntary agency, also endorses
the legal growth of low-grade industrial hemp as a cash crop.

"It's regarded in many parts of the world as an agricultural crop and it
was in this country years ago," said Spencer Neale, senior assistant
director of the Farm Bureau's commodity department.

Hemp, derived from the cannabis sativa plant, is used for rope, plastics,
building products and paper products, Neale said. The oil that can be drawn
from the seed is used in shampoo and makeup products.

"The true form of industrial hemp is definitely an agricultural crop. We
support research to look at its viability as a cash crop," Neale said, but
he added that resistance from the federal level to such measures is strong.

Virginia legislators, however, side with the Farm Bureau. In its most
recent session, the General Assembly passed a bill requesting the
Department of Agriculture, the Virginia Economic Development Partnership,
the Department of Environmental Quality and the Virginia State Police to
develop guidelines for the growth and production of industrial hemp.

Reams says the cost of keeping marijuana illegal has never been measured,
but he estimated a conservative figure of about $200 million a year in
Virginia - which doesn't include lost revenues from the cultivation of hemp
and other ventures.

"Nonusers are carrying the burden of prohibition," Reams said. "There are
700,000 arrests [nationwide] annually. [Those resources] could have been
used to fight real crime."

Reams, who said he has smoked marijuana but no longer does, said he's
always "felt strongly" about legalizing marijuana and now sees a growing
groundswell of support for such change.

"This is an opportunity for voters to really make a difference," Reams
said. "It's going to carry forward, and I'm going to carry that message
forward also."