ADRIAN MAN CAMPAIGNS FOR MARIJUANA PROPOSAL

ADRIAN, Mich. - Twenty years ago, Steven Butler was prescribed
Marinol for pain relief from a variety of ailments.

Butler, 43, said the medicine, which includes the active ingredient
in marijuana, did what injectable narcotics such as morphine could
not -- relieve the pain and allow him to live his life.

"I didn't become a zombie," the retired corrections officer from
Adrian said. The medication, he said, didn't affect his mental acuity.

Now he wants Michigan voters on Tuesday to approve Proposal 1, which
would legalize marijuana use and possession for certain medical
purposes. He said smoking marijuana is a more effective means of
ingesting THC than taking it in a pill like Marinol, such as when
someone can't swallow a pill. He said it is easier to regulate the
dosage by smoking marijuana.

Supporters of the proposal say marijuana helps ease pain and nausea
from cancer, chemotherapy, HIV, AIDS, glaucoma and other conditions.
The proposal would allow doctors to recommend medical marijuana as a treatment.

"There is simply no doubt that medical marijuana can relieve
suffering," Barbara Davis, a registered nurse and a member of the
Michigan Nurses Association board of directors, which supports the
proposal, wrote Thursday in a commentary in the Detroit Free Press.
"In a White House-commissioned study released in 1999, the Institute
of Medicine reported, 'Nausea, appetite loss, pain and anxiety are
all afflictions of wasting, and all can be mitigated by marijuana.'"

In his situation, Butler said, he had cluster headaches, polyps from
his esophagus to his intestines and vasculitis, which caused his toes
and fingers to swell and sometimes even burst. He also had two strokes.

Before being prescribed Marinol 20 years ago, he took prescribed,
injectable narcotics for pain control, he said. At work at the
Southern Michigan Correctional Facility in Jackson, he had to lock up
the drugs in the prison's arsenal.

Meanwhile, his doctors at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor,
the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and a hospital in Chicago were
telling him marijuana would work better for him than the other drugs,
but that he would have to go overseas to get it.

"I was so depressed," he said. "We're supposed to be the best medical
in the world, and (the doctors') hands are tied."

Butler said he would rather listen to his doctors' advice on
treatment than to legislators. He was able to acquire marijuana from
"compassionate people," he said.

"I have not smoked in a long time,"Butler said.

He eventually was prescribed Marinol, which at the time was generally
limited to certain cancer and AIDS patients.

Once on Marinol, Butler found he was able to function, not only at
work, but socially.

"It took me off the morphine," he said. "I was able to continue my
job in law enforcement and raise a family. ... If it were not for
Marinol and THC, I wouldn't be alive today to see my grandkids."

The medicine eased his nausea, which would lead to him vomiting
blood. While his nausea is under control, he still carries plastic
bags with him just in case.

The proposal is opposed by a number of medical, law enforcement and
anti-drug organizations under the name Citizens Protecting Michigan's
Kids. They say the proposal will make it easier for children to
access marijuana, which they say is a "gateway" to using harder
drugs. They claim it will allow "pot shops" to open where patients
would be able to buy marijuana.

"There is not a single paragraph, sentence or word within Proposal 1
that prohibits pot shops from opening in Michigan, just like they did
in California," Citizens Protecting Michigan's Kids co-chairman Bill
Schuette said in a news release. Schuette is a Michigan Court of
Appeals judge. "Proposal 1 is a loophole-ridden proposal that brings
dangerous, unintended consequences that put our kids and communities at risk."

"What (opponents) don't tell you is that Proposal 1 is nothing like
California's law, which was the first of its kind and was indeed too
loosely worded," Davis wrote. "They never mention that the 11 other
states with more tightly regulated medical marijuana laws have had
virtually no problems at all."

Michigan's proposal spells out how patients would qualify for medical
marijuana, how much marijuana they could possess, where it could be
smoked and how patients would work with caregivers. It does not,
however, address how patients would acquire marijuana.

"I'm sure there would be a seed bank," Butler said.

He said he only learned of the proposal a week ago.

If Michigan were to join other states in legalizing marijuana, it
would still be at odds with federal law, which lists marijuana among
the most tightly controlled kinds of narcotics.

But the Drug Enforcement Administration and other federal agencies
are focused on battling large-scale drug trafficking operations, not
small-scale users, said DEA Detroit office spokesman Rich Isaacson.
Medical-marijuana patients typically would not be targeted by the
DEA, he told the AP.

Butler said he has not been in touch with federal legislators about
legalizing medical marijuana. "I sure plan on it, though," he said.

Some doctors say legalizing marijuana for medical use is unnecessary
because there are other treatments for nausea and pain, including Marinol.

"I just don't think there's much medical cause for" the initiative,
Republican State Sen. Tom George, a medical doctor, told the Associated Press.

Another concern is that the proposal does not call for marijuana to
be approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration like other
medications. Butler said those concerns are unfounded.

"If you look at other cultures that have used it for thousands of
years without regulations, there haven't been any problems," he said.

Others say the proposal is a step toward legalizing recreational use
of marijuana.

"It's not about that at all," Butler said. "We're not a bunch of
liberal potheads."

He counters that he does not take Marinol as often now as he used to
and he has no cravings for it.

Legalizing medical marijuana would lift a psychological burden from
patients who now acquire the drug illegally, Butler said.

He is also willing to meet with police and medical professionals to
discuss their concerns about the proposal.

"I'll tell them how it's been a life-saver for me," he said. "I hate
to see undue suffering."