PANELISTS LOOK TO LEGALIZE, REGULATE, TAX MARIJUANA

FARMINGTON -- It's time to legalize, regulate and tax marijuana in
Maine, according to most panel members at Monday's marijuana forum at
the University of Maine.

"We need a change on the war on drugs," Rep. Lance Harvell,
R-Farmington, said. "We need to recognize this war is lost."

Prohibition or attacking the supply but not dealing with demand won't
win the war, he said.

To end the war, state Rep. Diane Russell, D-Portland, said she is
co-sponsoring a soon-to-be-filed bill in the Legislature. The proposal
would decriminalize marijuana use and growth, she told panelists and
nearly 100 audience members.

Serving on the panel were state Attorney General William Schneider,
Farmington police Chief Jack Peck, retired police captain and founder
of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition Peter Christ, and from the
state Legislature, Rep. Deborah Sanderson, R-Chelsea, Harvell and Russell.

Alcohol prohibition didn't work, Russell said. It created crime by
creating a black market.

"People say marijuana is a gateway drug. Marijuana is not the gateway.
The gateway is the drug dealer who wants to diversify his product,"
she said.

Russell's bill would legalize and authorize taxing marijuana purchases
with a 7 percent tax, the same as on beer, she said. Buyers would have
to be over 21 to purchase and individuals could grow their own for
personal use within a 75-square-foot plot without paying taxes.

It would create new revenue sources for Maine's budget crisis, she
said.

It's a complicated but comprehensive bill that makes marijuana laws
more simple, she said. She received applause as she revealed details
of her new bill.

Although Maine voters accepted medical marijuana, the federal
government has listed it as an illegal substance since the 1960s,
Walter Hanstein, moderator of the event, said.

Maine law prohibits possession, furnishing, trafficking and
cultivating, Schneider said. The medical marijuana law allows 2.5
ounces or up to six plants per patient and caregiver.

Locally, marijuana enforcement over the past five years shows it's not
a big priority for the Farmington Department, Chief Peck said.

The department has had no convictions in the last five years. It
handles about 22 possession cases a year that are usually either
dismissed or result in fines of $300 or less. Most trafficking and
cultivation charges have been dismissed or probation was set at less
than a year.

"Whatever voters decide, we'll enforce," he said. But he agreed that
the war on drugs is not working.

Peck said he graduated from Mt. Blue High School 20-plus years ago
when marijuana was easier to get then than alcohol. It's still the
same, he added.

As a police officer who also worked with the Maine Drug Enforcement
agency, he said most marijuana users tend to be sleepy and nonviolent.

"I've never fought with anyone stoned. I've never been to a marijuana
overdose," he said.

He agreed that "we should look at decriminalizing it, regulate and tax
it."

But he has seen the heartache caused by other opiate
drugs.

For Rep. Sanderson, who has sponsored legislation to try to clarify
the medical marijuana bill for law enforcement, a patient's rights to
treatment by a doctor should not require government
intervention.

Patients are not required to pay a $100 fee to the state to purchase a
prescription from a pharmacy nor do they have mandatory registration
or have to sign a release for their medical information, she said.

"Prohibition doesn't work," Christ said. "If you want to get out of a
hole, you stop digging. We have a drug problem but the greater problem
is a policy problem."

"This war is over. We just need to find a way to end it," Harvell
said, ending the 90-minute forum sponsored by the Daily Bulldog and
UMF's pre-law program.