U.S. DEPUTY DRUG CZAR SAYS PROPOSAL 1 IS 'ABOUT DOPE, NOT ABOUT MEDICINE'

GRAND RAPIDS -- Listening to opponents of Proposal 1 list their
arguments, Kentwood resident Deborah Brink had a different view on
the statewide ballot question that would approve medically legalized marijuana.

In 1979, Brink became violently ill while undergoing chemotherapy for
leukemia. She threw up four times an hour for four hours a day, five
days a week.

Nothing she tried to relieve the nausea worked -- until she turned to
marijuana.

"I did not throw up at all," recalled Brink, now 50. "You can't say
for sure, but there's a possibility it saved my life."

But in a Monday news conference, law enforcement officials, including
U.S. Deputy Drug Czar Scott Burns, called Proposal 1 dangerous and wrong.

"Proposal 1 is bad for Michigan and it is bad for America," Burns said.

"This issue is about dope, not about medicine."

Burns maintained the ballot proposal is being pushed by wealthy
individuals from outside Michigan, who have backed similar proposals
in other states.

"They are funded by millions of dollars from millionaires who live in
Washington, D.C. to hire people to come to Michigan to try and con
voters from the state to pass it."

Burns and Michigan Court of Appeals Judge Bill Schuette contend the
measure would open the door to the "pot shops" and smoking clubs that
are common in California. That state legalized marijuana for medical
use in 1996.

They were joined at the news conference by a group of law enforcement
officials, including Kent County Sheriff Larry Stelma.

"This proposed statute, it's a doozy," Schuette said.

If the measure passes, Michigan law would allow doctors to recommend
marijuana for patients with cancer, glaucoma, HIV, AIDS and other
conditions the state agrees are covered under the law.

Those patients would register with the state and could legally buy,
grow and use small amounts of marijuana to relieve pain, nausea,
appetite loss and other symptoms.

Similar medical-marijuana laws have been enacted in a dozen states in
recent years, most by ballot initiative.

While the measure would remove state-level penalties for registered
patients using marijuana, it wouldn't create legal dispensaries for
the drug, nor would it affect the federal ban on marijuana.

Backers of Proposal 1 contend that opponents are twisting the truth
to frighten people.

"The opposition is using scare tactics out of desperation, which does
not diminish the fact that medical marijuana can safely and
effectively relieve the pain and suffering of seriously ill
patients," said Dianne Byrum, spokeswoman for the Michigan Coalition
for Compassionate Care, sponsor of the ballot initiative.

"They are just throwing things up in the air and hoping something will stick."

Byrum said Michigan, unlike California, does not allow the opening of
pot shops.

"This law is nothing like California."

Manistee resident and retired physician George Wagner, 73, said his
wife, Beverly, obtained relief from marijuana in 2007 as she was
fighting ovarian cancer. She died in July 2007.

She experienced nausea, vomiting and tried "all the available" legal
medications, Wagner said.

"After two breaths of marijuana smoke, her symptoms disappeared. It
was as dramatic relief of a symptom that I've seen after 30 years of
practicing medicine.

"It's just outrageous that such an effective medication cannot be
available legally."