Pubdate: Thu, 23 Aug 2001
Source: Colorado Springs Independent Newsweekly (CO)
Copyright: 2001 Colorado Springs Independent
Contact:  http://www.csindy.com/csindy/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1536
Author: Tom Barrus
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1515/a02.html

POLITICIANS ANSWER TO DRUG LORDS OF ALCOHOL AND TOBACCO

To the Editor:

Thank you for breaking the story by your investigative reporter, Cara 
DeGette, on the cannabis plant that was found at the Governor's mansion.

The lame denials by the Colorado State Patrol that "it's probably just some 
kind of weed" are ludicrous and don't even approach plausible deniability. 
The governor will not have his mansion and property seized by the state, as 
would happen to a regular person in such circumstances.

Important to remember is the dishonesty and hypocrisy of the governor and 
most other politicians in Colorado who have surrendered to the drug lords. 
No, not the drug lords who grow a medicinal plant that heals sick people 
and kills no one, but the drug lords who make deadly hard drugs, 
mood-altering, physically addicting drugs that kill thousands of Coloradans 
each year.

These drug pushers are the manufacturers of the two most deadly and 
dangerous of all drugs, the tobacco and alcohol drugs. Joel Hefley takes 
tobacco and alcohol drug money, as does Tom Tancredo. So does Bill Owens.

They (and most other politicians) tell us how bad "drugs" are and how we 
must put people in jail who grow or use cannabis. But cannabis does not 
kill anyone as tobacco and alcohol do. As a pharmacist, I find it amazing 
that many people are unaware that tobacco and alcohol are drugs, even 
though tobacco meets the definition of a schedule I controlled substance 
(like heroin) and alcohol meets the definition of a schedule II (like cocaine).

Most people also do not know that tobacco and alcohol are exempt by name 
from the Colorado Food and Drug Act (25-5-402(4) C.R.S.) and are also 
inexplicably omitted from the so-called Uniform Controlled Substances Act 
of 1992 (18-18-203 & 204 C.R.S) list of schedule I and II controlled 
substances.

I have been unable to get any Colorado politician to explain to me why 
these deadly drugs are exempt from our state drug laws, or why any other 
drug less harmful than tobacco or alcohol should not also be exempt from 
these drug laws for the same reason(s) that tobacco and alcohol are exempt.

Perhaps the Colorado Springs Independent can succeed where I have failed by 
getting Owens, Hefley, Tancredo, etc. to explain why it is OK for them to 
take drug money from tobacco and alcohol drug pushers, but not from 
cannabis growers, why it is OK for the two most deadly drugs, tobacco and 
alcohol (over 400,000 drug deaths and over 80,000 drug deaths respectively 
each year in the United States), to be exempt from the drug laws, but it is 
not OK for the medicinal herb cannabis (0 drug deaths ever) to be exempt 
from these same laws.

When you ask the politicians to answer these questions, also ask them if 
the government has any studies to show any purported scientific or medical 
uses for these two hard drugs, or if they are simply recreational drugs.

Thanks again for the enlightening article.

- -- Tom Barrus, American Federation for Legal Consistency Golden, CO
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens