CONFERENCE FOCUSES ON CHANGING U.S. DRUG POLICY

George McMahon walked into MU's Arts and Sciences building Saturday
and dumped a can of "marijuana cigarettes" on the floor just to make a point.

He is one of many speakers who came to MU for the 2006 Midwest Drug
Policy Conference, a three-day event sponsored by the National
Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws and Students for Sensible
Drug Policy. The conference ends today.

The conference features student activism workshops, books,
merchandise and guest speakers from Columbia and around the country.

McMahon suffers from nail and patella syndrome. His gnarled fingers,
some missing fingernails, hold the can that carries the marijuana he
said he receives for free from a federal medical marijuana program.
Officially he gets marijuana for the pain, spasms and nausea he gets
from his condition, he said.

McMahon said he was on his death bed until he smoked marijuana for
the first time.

"I smoked a joint and lived," he said.

Clifford Thornton, the president of Efficacy, an organization that
advocates changes to America's current drug policy, spoke on the need
to reform and change drug laws.

"You have to thoroughly understand the economics behind it," Thornton
said. "Economics is the driving force behind the drug war."

It's also an issue of class and race, Thornton said. "If people don't
understand racism, classism and white privilege then they don't
really understand what the drug war is about," he said.

"That's the war on drugs in its entirety," he said.

Joe Bartlett, president of the MU chapter of Students for Sensible
Drug Policy, said the conference is a way for different organizations
to come together and share ideas, experiences and to create bonds to
help further their cause