BELMONT TEEN FIGHTS BAN OF HER POT PROJECT

A Belmont teenager refused to back down Tuesday on her fight to get
her project on medicinal marijuana entered in the school science fair
this week.

The Belmont Redwood Shores School District offered a written apology
for waiting so long to ban her project and full credit for her work.
But 13-year-old Veronica Mouser would have none of it.

``I don't agree with them at all,'' she said. ``It seems like bribery
to me. They just want to give me the letter of apology and a grade, so
this won't get out and so they can keep it closed out. It needs to be
open. This is something we need to talk about.''

She vowed to keep fighting unless her ``Mary Jane for Pain'' research
project is entered into the science fair that began Tuesday and ends
Thursday at Ralston Middle School. Superintendent Anne Campbell did
agree to re-evaluate the decision, and asked to view Veronica's
4-foot-high wooden display on medicinal pot, but in the privacy of her
office. A decision on whether to reinstate it could come today.

``We are learning more and more about what her project says, and we
might have a new decision in the morning,'' Assistant Superintendent
Marcia Harter said.

Veronica's project examines the possible medicinal benefits of
marijuana. School principal Deborah Ferguson barred the project Jan.
17, citing concerns that pot is still illegal under federal law even
though Californians have sanctioned it for medicinal use.

Veronica was showered Tuesday with invitations to talk to local and
national media about the rejection of her work. The American Civil
Liberties Union rose to her defense.

``The school's decision to exclude this project is troubling both in
terms of free speech and in terms of the underlying purpose of a
science fair, to encourage students to challenge conventional notions
by engaging in research,'' staff attorney Ann Brick said in a
statement. ``The idea that students cannot report the results of their
research because its content is controversial is the antithesis of
science.'' The ACLU has decided not to take the case to court, however.

Veronica became interested in medicinal weed after watching a close
relative wasting away from a gastrointestinal disease. He recovered
after he began smoking medicinal pot. She didn't use marijuana herself
or give it to any research subjects. Her project display doesn't
include any samples of the weed.

Instead, she logged the effects of the drug on three medicinal
marijuana patients. She also visited a private pot-growing room,
toured an Oakland cannabis club and interviewed doctors.

She also surveyed students and relatives, and 72 percent said it was
easier for teenagers to buy pot than alcohol.

Veronica concluded that medicinal marijuana does help relieve pain and
nausea for chronically ill and dying patients, but warned that smoke
can be hazardous.

In addition to concerns about pot's legality, Ferguson rejected
Veronica's project saying that it amounted to a research paper and not
a scientific experiment. She said hands-on procedures are required for
state and county science fairs.

But Cliff Gould, a board member for the California State Science Fair,
said Veronica's project would be acceptable if it won at the local
level and was entered in the statewide fair.

``My goodness, it's someone simply talking to people about their
contact'' with marijuana, he said. ``Personally I find that terribly
innocent. It is not illegal to talk about marijuana, to write a book
about marijuana, do a school report about marijuana. And those are the
things that she's done. If those are projects the science fair raised
to the state level, it might raise some eyebrows but there would be no
reason for us to question its acceptability.''

Veronica had three medicinal marijuana patients log the effects of the
weed for one week and the effects of abstaining for one week. Gould
said that aspect might raise the project to the level of scientific
research.

Her dilemma is strikingly similar to a case last year involving a
Santa Cruz County seventh-grader who submitted a science project with
the same ``Mary Jane for Pain'' title.

The girl included a marijuana-laced muffin and a liquid steeped in
pot. The school let her present the report but seized the potent props.

Both cases illustrate the wider conflict over marijuana that arose
when California voters approved it for medicinal use in 1996 though it
is still banned under federal law.

In San Mateo County, a huge research project examining pros and cons
of medicinal pot is under way, using strict controls to meet federal
sanctioning rules.

``For my daughter, this is all about what's right and wrong,'' said
Veronica's stepfather, Dave Phillips. ``I could support her backing
off, but she's firmly entrenched. Her project will be displayed.''