Portland Chief of Police Michael J. Chitwood:
Real goal is legal marijuana for all
Medical use of cannibis fails to win support from doctors' groups.

VOTING YES
Cumberland County Sheriff Mark Dion

Initiative aims only at helping the sick

Approval would show compassion, not support for legalization.

Copyright © 1999 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

Maine voters will decide on Tuesday whether or not reason prevails over fear.

I chose to support the medical marijuana referendum question because I believe people are fundamentally good and any effort to relieve suffering adds to the nobility of a community.

Voters in seven other states — Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon and Washington — have approved initiatives intended to make marijuana legal for medicinal purposes. These citizens have concluded that those who suffer should have access to any medicine, that would enhance their quality of life.

Question 2 will not legalize recreational marijuana but requires a supporting medical diagnosis and the participation of a physician in its use. It prohibits commercial cultivation or public consumption.

My stance is not about being soft on drugs or furthering a radical political agenda. I speak to our need to comfort those we love as they face debilitating, physical decline.

Opponents suggest, in a contemporary version of reefer madness, that approval of medicinal marijuana would send a wrong message to our children. What is this message? That adults are committed to a drug- control policy that defines our lives in black and white? That we forfeit our ability to make rational, discriminating decisions based on objective evidence and ethical values when faced with drug-control dogma?

Our children are faced with daunting challenges. The availability of illegal drugs in their universe is more prevalent today than parents or the most dedicated drug enforcement agent would care to admit.

What saves one youth over another is the ability to make good decisions. If the floodgate of potential abuse is as open as opponents claim, do we continue to pound the table with the solitary idea that water is bad or do we teach our kids the ability to swim in the fast-moving currents of an increasingly complex society?

Question 2 is silent on how the afflicted individual will obtain the initial amount of marijuana. I am confident that when the people of Maine approve this measure a working group comprised of police, doctors and lawmakers can draft a process that will allow restricted, regulated access for an approved patient. Ironically, this mandate would act to place some proactive regulatory oversight on a substance that today remains outside government control.

There are voices suggesting that law enforcement will be handcuffed by this proposal. But police will still gather the facts of each case as it unfolds. And they will afford the prosecutor all the available facts, even those that might lead to a decision to suspend sanctions. Good cops will continue to do good police work.

I could offer studies to support my position. Those who would advocate otherwise offer an array of opposing conclusions. Theirs is a position of law carved in stone; honorable yes, traditional yes, but not necessarily right. I ask that you search your heart for an answer, not a legal index.

Contraband is a lawyer's word; compassion is a moral imperative. Each of us can choose how we live our lives. When we linger in our old age what would be said of us. Did we accept a drug war that knew of no mercy, no trust and no compassion? Or was ours a story that inspired our grandchildren to remember that we each found the courage to stand up and free medicine to do her work.

You choose. I have.

Mark Dion is the sheriff of Cumberland County.

VOTING NO
Portland Chief of Police Michael J. Chitwood

Real goal is legal marijuana for all

Medical use of cannibis fails to win support from doctors' groups.

Copyright © 1999 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

On Nov. 2, Maine voters will be asked to answer the ballot question: "Do you want to allow patients with specific illnesses to grow and use small amounts of marijuana for treatment, as long as such use is approved by a doctor?"

My answer is a resounding "no." My decision to vote "no" is based on 35 years in law enforcement, my experience as a narcotics investigator and my firm belief that any legalization of drugs is a threat to our children, families and communities.

This initiative is a thinly disguised first step toward the legalization of marijuana and other drugs. It is intentionally vague and requires little in the way of medical oversight or regulation. No physician's prescription is required to possess the drug and the bill places no restrictions on the types of illnesses or treatment that qualify for marijuana use.

Pro-legalization groups have stated publicly that their effort to legalize drugs begins with the legalization of marijuana for medical purposes. Medical access to marijuana is regarded as the "chink in the armor" that will eventually lead to complete legalization.

Proponents of drug legalization cloak themselves in the appearance of compassion by relying on anec- dotal evidence from cancer patients, HIV sufferers and anguished family members of the terminally ill regarding the relief patients have received from the use of marijuana.

In fact, not one major medical or health organization has accepted marijuana as a safe or effective medicine. Organizations such as the American Medical Association, American Cancer Society, National Cancer Institute, American Glau- coma Association and the American Academy of Ophthalmology have not endorsed the use of marijuana.

A report re- leased in March 1999 by the Institute of Medicine concluded "there is little future in smoked marijuana as a medically approved medication." Cannabis in plant form contains a mixture of chemical compounds and, therefore, is ill suited to provide a precisely defined medical effect.

In addition, the harmful effects of smoking marijuana far outweigh the moderate beneficial effects on pain and nausea. The risks associated with marijuana use include premature cancer, addiction, impairment of perception and coordination, memory loss, harm to the immune system, airway injuries and depression.

The push to legalize the use of medical marijuana has contributed to a changing attitude in America that marijuana is safe and harmless. The passage of medical use initiatives in Arizona and California has sent our teens the message that marijuana is, in fact, a cure. This message is confusing and dangerous.

Recent drug use statistics indicate that teen drug use has risen in the past five years, after 13 years of steady decline. At present, 36 percent of high school seniors report using marijuana in the last year.

Maine has a higher rate of marijuana use among the 18- to 24-year-old age group than the rest of New England or the nation as a whole. Marijuana use among Maine high school students exceeds the national rate by 13 percent.

As we struggle to address the use and abuse of drugs by our children, we must avoid sending the message that drug use is OK. Experience has shown that drug use increases dramatically when we as a society reinforce its acceptability. We should not allow the advocates of drug legalization to treat marijuana as "medicine" as a means of gaining its widespread acceptance.

Imagine going to your family doctor for migraine headaches or persistent nausea. He tells you to use a "medicine" that is not FDA-approved, is not subject to any product liability or quality control standards, is of unknown strength, is made up of hundreds of different chemicals, has no controlled daily dose and is ingested by smoking.

There is little scientific proof that the drug will work and its known harmful effects include apathy, memory loss, mental disorders, reproductive disabilities and immune system deficiencies. Would you take it? Would you allow your child to take it?

###