Pubdate: Sat, 07 Oct 2006 Source: Greeley Tribune (CO) Copyright: 2006 Greeley Tribune Contact: http://www.greeleytrib.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3165 Author: Mike Peters, Greeley Tribune Note: typically publishes LTEs from circulation area only Cited: Amendment 44 http://www.safercolorado.org Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Amendment+44 THE POLITICS OF POT Bill Smits, 22, of Greeley stands next to his truck that has a sign in the back of his window with a saying that saved his life. When Smits was a teen, he had constant chemotherapy, which made him vomit everything he ate. He lost 84 pounds in a month. Medical marijuana was the only thing in the beginning that helped him keep food down. You would think, just by seeing his pickup truck, that Bill Smits would favor the ballot initiative in the upcoming election that would legalize marijuana possession in Colorado. His pickup, which has the professionally-painted sign, "CANCER SUCKS marijuana saved my life!" in his back window, obviously draws attention as he drives around Greeley. But Smits' sign isn't about legalization. It's about medicinal marijuana. As a teen, Smits had a cancerous tumor on his brain stem, and he had to undergo almost constant chemotherapy, drugs, radiation and surgeries. Because of the chemo, he was nauseous most of the time. "I lost 84 pounds in one month," says Smits, who is now 22 and cancer-free. "Everything I ate, I threw up." He tried Marinol, a drug that has some of the chemicals of marijuana, but it didn't work. Then he got some marijuana from friends in Boulder and it stopped the nausea. Smits was able to keep food down, and he began to get well. If you ask him how he survived cancer, he'll give you a one-word answer: "Weed." But because he still considers marijuana dangerous for some people, he is undecided on a ballot initiative that would make the weed legal in Colorado. "I think it's important for some people -- those seriously ill -- to have marijuana if they need it. But it shouldn't be abused, either," Smits said. Smits said he no longer uses marijuana because he was afraid of becoming addicted. He tapered off after the cancer was in remission. "But I'm still not sure how I'll vote on the question," Smits said. Two people are convinced of their positions on the question, Weld County Sheriff John Cooke and the man who led the election to get the marijuana legalized in Denver, Mason Tvert. Here is a summary of their arguments: Cooke: * "There's a lot of reasons to be opposed to marijuana. The initiative is a slippery slope -- first medical use, then legalization of marijuana, and eventually legalization of all drugs." * "Alaska legalized marijuana for a time, and because of all the problems it presented, they voted to make it illegal again." * The way we're going, we will eventually make cigarette smoke illegal and marijuana smoke legal." * "We know it's a gateway drug -- it starts young people on the path to using more and more dangerous drugs." Tvert: * "Government tests and medical labs have shown over and over that marijuana is less harmful than alcohol." * "Forty-seven percent of America's population have smoked marijuana and they had to get it illegally." * "The Denver election showed that the people don't want marijuana to be illegal anymore." * "The only way it's a 'gateway drug' is when the police arrest people for minor possession, and that starts them through the gate into being criminals." Cooke and Tvert agree that if the initiative passes, marijuana will continue to be a federal crime. And, both agree that no federal agent will bother to arrest anyone with a small amount of the weed. Amendment 44 would legalize the possession of up to 1 ounce of marijuana for adults 21 years of age or older. Still illegal would be: Possession of marijuana under 21. Possession of more than an ounce. Transfer to person under 21 years old. Growing marijuana. Selling marijuana. Open or public display of marijuana. Driving under the influence of marijuana. - --- MAP posted-by: Elaine