KENTUCKY MAN TAKES POT PROWESS TO NETHERLANDS

Legal There, but Trouble Persists

NAALDWIJK, Netherlands - James R. Burton, who once served a year in a
U.S. federal prison, still gets a kick out of the signs at his
marijuana plantation here reminding employees whom to call in the
event of an emergency: the Dutch police.

Sixteen years ago, Burton did time in the maximum-security prison in
Marion, Ill., and lost his family farm in Bowling Green, Ky., after
being caught with an estimated $112,000 worth of marijuana that he
said he needed to stave off glaucoma. Last year, the Dutch government
gave him a five-year contract to grow more than 10 times that much.

Burton, 56, seemed the perfect candidate to supply the Netherlands'
new medical cannabis program, through which terminally ill patients
and sufferers of chronic pain can buy doctor-prescribed marijuana at
local pharmacies. For one thing, he has had plenty of on-the-job
training, having grown and smoked pot every day for most of the last
35 years.

"He's qualified to grow marijuana, I can tell you that," said Eddie
Railey, a Kentucky state police investigator at the time of Burton's
arrest. "He's good at it. He has a lot of experience."

Even his one-year stretch behind bars was not a total waste, Burton
said, because he got a grounding in the high-security techniques
needed to guard a government-sponsored cannabis crop. Thirty-two
security cameras, three vocal guard dogs and the occasional Dutch
police car make sure no dope leaves through the back door.

"It's better-guarded than the bank here," Burton said
proudly.

Dressed in a lab technician's white coat, his ponytail barely visible,
Burton nurses a deadly serious devotion to a plant that makes others
simply giggle.

One of only two growers chosen for the medical cannabis program, this
American expatriate in Rotterdam was sure he had found nirvana in the
Netherlands, a place to fulfill his dream of establishing marijuana as
a valid medical treatment. His euphoria about the Dutch experiment,
however, has been short-lived. The Dutch program's first anniversary
is this month, and Burton and health officials are clashing over what
to charge for medical cannabis, how to test it and even how many
varieties to sell.

"Everything I have ever worked for is going down the tubes," he
said.

Burton said government regulations like testing and packaging are
ruining his business. His medical marijuana, which is irradiated to
remove bacteria, sells at a drugstore for about $11.50 a gram; local
cafes often charge less than half that, so many patients
understandably choose to go there instead.

"The government here is sticking its neck out on this project, and the
whole world is watching," Burton said. "Unfortunately, they have made
some misjudgments and miscalculations."

But if Burton's mission to make pot the world's next wonder drug has
already cost him his home and his freedom in the United States, his
mouthing off on marijuana's behalf seems likely to result in the loss
of his government contract, particularly because, in the government's
view, it violates a confidentiality agreement. At the very least, his
recent appearance on a national television network here lambasting the
medical cannabis program -- sprinkled with threats of a lawsuit
against the government -- has exasperated Dutch officials.

"Certainly there are problems, but it's not a flop," said Willem
Scholten, director of the Dutch Office of Medicinal Can-nabis. "It's
too early to make such a judgment."

Burton has not seen eye to eye with the powers that be since he went
to prison in 1988, after a federal jury in the United States ruled
that growing marijuana at his farm was a crime in spite of his claims
that he needed it to ward off his glaucoma.

Burton has stuck to that defense ever since, convinced that three
joints a day have staved off a form of glaucoma that afflicts some
members of his family.

"One of the reasons I have such great passion for it is because it did
save my eyesight," Burton said. "I have met tens of thousands of
people who marijuana does work for."

For more than three decades, Burton has followed the same medical
regimen: first thing in the morning, again in the afternoon, and just
before bed.

More than once, he has told reporters that his two brothers "were
totally blind" from the same form of glaucoma that threatened him. But
his brothers say that only one of them has glaucoma and that both can
see just fine as long as they wear their glasses.

After his release from prison, Burton decided he had little choice but
to leave the United States. His criminal case had attracted enough
media attention to make him an undesirable, even among drug dealers.

"I was homeless, I didn't have any money, I couldn't get a job," he
said. "I really couldn't get any marijuana anymore because when I
called up and said, 'This is James Burton,' all of the dealers hung
up."

So he moved to the Netherlands, where he could buy and smoke pot. In
time, Burton started distributing marijuana to Dutch patients, which
was technically illegal but tolerated. Business boomed, and in 1993,
he opened up SIMM, the Dutch acronym of his Institute of Medical Marijuana.

Three years ago, the Dutch government put out a call for medical
cannabis growers. Burton easily met the requirements, including
delivery of cannabis of a consistent quality during three trial runs.
In fact, he can grow 134 varieties, slice it, dice it and package it.

His medical cannabis is sold under the name SIMM. "You can't have at
the pharmacy 'White Nightmare' or 'AK-47,'" he said. "The doctor can't
prescribe those kinds of names. You have to have medical terms."