TOP ANTIDRUG OFFICIALS JOIN PUSH TO BLOCK MEDICAL MARIJUANA

LANSING -- A team of top national antidrug officials joined the
late-starting campaign to defeat Michigan's medical marijuana
initiative Tuesday, telling reporters Proposal 1 is a dangerous drug
legalization scheme that will lead to more addiction and despair.

John Walters, a Michigan native who heads the White House Office of
National Drug Control Policy, said marijuana has no legitimate
medical use. Medical marijuana laws simply "make it easier for
addicts to stay addicted," he said.

Walters is scheduled for a joint appearance today in Southfield with
Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard, Prosecutor David Gorcyca and
other representatives of the anti-Proposal 1 campaign. The group
Citizens Protecting Michigan's Kids was formed late last month by law
enforcement and medical organizations that argue that legalizing
medical marijuana will make it harder to control cultivation,
distribution and sale of the drug.

The group's cochairman Bill Schuette, a state appellate judge, said
passage of Proposal 1 could lead to the proliferation of storefront
marijuana dispensaries like those in California.

Backers of the proposal say that legalizing marijuana possession and
use of it to treat pain in patients with serious illness is compassionate.

Michigan's proposed law, placed on the ballot by a petition drive
funded by a national pro-legalization group, is unlike the California
law and prohibits marijuana dispensaries, according to the
pro-Proposal 1 group Michigan Coalition for Compassionate Care.