Pubdate: Wed, 26 Jan 2005
Source: Pantagraph, The  (IL)
Copyright: 2005 The Pantagraph
Contact:  http://www.pantagraph.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/643
Author: Scott Richardson
Cited: Office of National Drug Control Policy ( www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov )
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Barthwell (Andrea Barthwell)

SPEAKER: LEGALIZING POT A BAD IDEA

BLOOMINGTON -- A former policy adviser to President Bush on drug issues 
spoke in the Twin Cities on Tuesday to urge straight talk to combat the 
movement to legalize marijuana.

Addressing a group of drug educators, community leaders and city officials, 
Dr. Andrea Barthwell, a physician with more than 20 years experience 
treating addiction, termed medical use of marijuana a "Trojan horse 
designed to lead to the legalization of a dangerous drug."

Barthwell, a finalist for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate that 
Illinois Republican leaders eventually gave to Alan Keyes, worries a 
well-funded lobby is pushing for the medical legalization of marijuana.

Though medical use of marijuana remains illegal at the federal level, more 
than 10 states allow the practice based on a doctor's recommendation. 
Medicinal use of marijuana also has been debated in Illinois in recent years.

"We're very concerned," said Barthwell, the former deputy director of 
demand reduction for the White House Office of National Drug Control 
Policy, who is making an 18-city tour of Illinois.

"No city, no state is better off with more drugs available to their young 
people."

Synthetic versions of marijuana have been approved to treat nausea for 
chemotherapy patients and anorexia in AIDS patients, she said. But that's a 
far cry from "gulping" smoke from a crude cigarette, she said.

"I doubt it was in the scheme that the Great Creator would put one plant on 
Earth that could cure everything wrong with you," said Barthwell as the 
audience laughed.

Barthwell fears parents of the Baby Boomer generation are seduced into 
supporting marijuana's legalization based on their own youthful experiences 
-- when just one in 10 people who tried marijuana went on to use other 
illicit substances, she said.

They are likely unaware the potency of marijuana has risen dramatically 
over the years, she said.

"What we're really worried about is that parents don't understand how big a 
problem marijuana is. They are turning their heads," she said.

Equally troubling is that children are being introduced to the drug, mainly 
by their peers, at ever younger ages -- sometimes as young as ages 9 and 
10, she said.

"The number of young people under age 18 initiated to marijuana on a daily 
basis (in the United States) would fill a large suburban high school," 
Barthwell said. "Half of the kids have tried (illicit) drugs before leaving 
high school. That's unacceptable."

However, Barthwell said, children respond to drug education. As evidence, 
she said the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy exceeded 
Bush's goal to reduce illicit drug use by young people by 10 percent in two 
years.

She said she expects the administration to reach the president's objective 
of a 25 percent reduction in the first five years of his tenure.

Barthwell said she supports the Bush administration's strategy that 
combines drug prevention and treatment with law enforcement and drug 
interdiction.