ETHICS PANEL FINES GROUP THAT OPPOSED POT PROVISION

A group that fought a ballot proposal to decriminalize marijuana possession
in Columbia has been fined $1,000 by the Missouri Ethics Commission for
violating election rules.

The Missouri Association of Community Task Forces is also losing its
executive director, although she says her departure isn't related to the
Nov. 13 consent order filed by the ethics commission. In the consent order,
the task force stipulated that it didn't properly identify itself in a
printed ad that opposed Proposition 1, which would have eased marijuana laws
in Columbia.

The group also agreed that it did not file a report with the county clerk
detailing who spent the money, who received that money or what service or
item was purchased, as election laws require.

The group's executive director, Peggy Quigg, said the ruling and resulting
fine would not deter the group, which also calls itself Missouri ACT, from
taking part in future fights against the legalization of drugs.

"If anything, this was educational and will help make us better in the
future," said Quigg, who said she is leaving her post at the end of this
year. She said she hopes to find work training community leaders at a
regional or national level in drug prevention.

If the ethics panel's finding had resulted in her departure, "I'd be gone
already," Quigg said. "This decision has been a long time coming. I've been
here six years, and I've taken the organization through a growth period."

Quigg said the commission's findings don't tarnish the defeat of Proposition
1, which lost 10,461 to 7,629 on April 8.

The money to pay the $1,000 fine will be taken from the organization's
general fund, Quigg said.

"It has to come from . non-federal money," she said. The money is donated by
private people or generated through the sale of materials ACT Missouri
produces, she said. Some of that money could have been tax-deductible
contributions, she said.

"It's the cost of doing business in the election," Quigg said. The group
budgeted $5,000 to defeat Proposition 1, but spent about $3,000, she said.

Columbia attorney Dan Viets, a board member of the National Organization for
the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said he was glad the commission ruled on the
case that was triggered by his complaint.

But Viets said the order did not address other issues he wanted the state
attorney general's office to investigate, including whether the group, which
has a not-for-profit status, could have violated election laws by using
tax-deductible donations for campaign purposes.

"I guess the attorney general's office chose to ignore that," Viets said.

Another local drug-prevention advocate, Eve Pearson, called Viets' complaint
a red herring meant to distract attention from the issue of drug abuse.

"His goal is to get the issue back out again, so he can rant and rave about
it some more," said Pearson, a member of Mid Missouri Coalition of
Adolescent Concerns, which also opposed Proposition 1. "The bigger battle is
what's right and what's wrong."

"This is not at all a red herring," Viets said. "I really like to talk about
the issue."