ANTI-DRUG GROUP, PRESIDENTIAL APPOINTEE, OFFICIALS OPPOSE BILL

Proposition 1 Would Relax Drug Laws In Columbia

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Peggy Quigg held up a sandwich bag filled with 35 grams of
smoking tobacco rolled into about 50 cigarettes. "This is not a small
amount of marijuana for 13-year-olds, 35-year-olds or 50-year-olds," the
executive director of Jefferson City, Mo., anti-drug group ACT Missouri said.

Quigg joined a President Bush appointee, doctors and city officials in a
Thursday press conference to oppose Proposition 1, a measure that would
relax marijuana laws in Columbia, Mo.

Scott Burns, deputy director of state and local affairs for the Office of
National Drug Control Policy, said he was not visiting Columbia to tell
people how to vote in Tuesday's election, but to "help those who have been
caught up in the lie."

The proposition would automatically send those charged with possessing 35
grams or less of marijuana to city court, not county court where fines are
often higher.

Seriously ill patients would have access to the drug for medicinal purposes.

Burns said supporters of similar plans in other cities told people
marijuana is a "soft drug" that just overcrowds jails. Burns said this is
untrue.

"It comes down to this: Show me, while I am in Missouri, that more drugs
are going to be better," he said.

Even if the proposition is passed, Burns said, students could still lose
financial aid if they are convicted of a drug-related offense. Supporters
of the proposition have said that if marijuana cases are handled in
municipal court, such students could keep their financial aid.

Paul Robinson, a doctor in adolescent medicine at the student health center
at the University of Missouri, said decriminalization of marijuana would
increase marijuana use.

"It is very well-proven that when adolescents' perceptions of the danger of
any drug goes down, the use of that drug goes up," Robinson said.

First Ward City Council member Almeta Crayton said she has seen the adverse
effects drugs have on neighborhoods.

"I don't think you want to put up with what we deal with every day in our
community," Crayton said. "My area has been hard hit by drugs ... Shame on
those who are advancing these efforts," she said in a press release.

Last fall, organizers of Proposition 1 collected enough signatures to have
the issue on the ballot. Dan Viets, lawyer and legal director for the
Columbia Alliance for Patients and Education, is a lead supporter of the
proposition.

"It ought to be passed," he said. "It's very important for students to
support it."

The benefit to sick patients is another reason voters should support it, he
said.