ANTI-POT GROUP FILES LATE

Viets Complains To State Ethics Commission.

The executive director of ACT Missouri filed a campaign disclosure report
this morning indicating the Jefferson City group has spent $1,675 in ads in
the Tribune about Proposition 1.

The report comes two days after Dan Viets, a local attorney who helped
write the marijuana initiative, filed a complaint with the Missouri Ethics
Commission about ACT Missouri.

Viets' complaint says the organization violated election laws by not
reporting the money it had spent within 14 days of a campaign expenditure.
He also alleges that the group, which has not-for-profit status, violated
election laws by using tax-deductible money for campaigning purposes.

According to election laws, individuals or organizations not on file with
the Boone County clerk as a political action committee must report all
expenditures totaling more than $500.

ACT Missouriis report indicates the group paid $837 for an ad in the March
16 Tribune. Under Missouri's campaign disclosure laws, that amount should
have been reported Monday.

ACT Missouri is the Jefferson City-based group that has stepped forward to
oppose Proposition 1, which would decriminalize possession of small amounts
of marijuana and give seriously ill patients the right to use it if
recommended by a doctor.

Yesterday, the organization paid for a luncheon at the Peachtree Banquet
Center that was attended by about 50 people. The focus of the luncheon was
existing problems with marijuana in the community and how passing
Proposition 1 would intensify those.

Asked about the ethics complaint, Executive Director Peggy Quigg said she
would not "work the issue out in the press."

"Mr. Viets and I are going to have to work that out with the ethics
commission. I am not going to work it out in your newspaper," Quigg said.
"The ethics commission will make their determination and it will go through
the appropriate channels, so it is a non-issue."

The Missouri Ethics Commission is the state organization that oversees
conflict-of-interest and campaign-disclosure issues. Ethics commission
spokesman Mike Reid said all complaints filed with the commission are
confidential until a ruling is made.

U.S. Rep Ron Paul, R-Texas, also filed an ethics complaint this week with
the General Accounting Office about Scott Burns, the spokesman from the
White House's drug policy office who was speaking out about efforts to
decriminalize or legalize marijuana yesterday in Columbia.

Paulis complaint alleges that Burns has used federal funds to influence
local elections. Specifically, he noted a letter that was sent to county
prosecutors by Burns in November about marijuana. Paul said he filed his
complaint this week after hearing about Burns' visit to Columbia.

"The issue is whether people in Columbia, Missouri, have the right to make
their own decisions," Paul said. "I think the Constitution says that it is
none of the federal government's business."

Burns said that the drug czaris office was paying for his visit and that he
was simply doing his job by "telling the truth about marijuana."