Maine Common Sense
Articles
Herb Pharm
Maine Organization Works to Legalize Marijuana in State
Maine: Bill would enhance medical pot law
Retired cop denounces U.S. drug policy
Strong sentiments given on pot ordinance
Ex-officer likens drug war to prohibition
Relearning value of repeal
Propaganda has clouded perception of marijuana
Marijuana advocates want town to spark legalization
|
Herb Pharm
October 16th, 2007
Henry Garfield
Photo by Photo Montage by Bangor Metro
Is marijuana medicine? In November of 1999, a definitive 61% of Maine’s voters said “Yes.” The Maine Medical Marijuana Act was signed into law by then-governor Angus King and took effect on December 22 of that same year—an early Christmas present to patients suffering from nausea, seizures, and muscle spasms for which more conventional medications offered little relief.But nearly eight years after its implementation, medicinal marijuana in Maine remains cloaked behind a smokescreen of controversy. No one knows how many patients are using the drug, because there is no central clearinghouse for information. Under the law, doctors do not “prescribe” marijuana, and there is no legal distribution system. Instead, patients with written documentation from a physician are permitted to grow and possess a limited amount for their own personal use. And Maine’s law, like similar laws in 11 other states, is superseded by federal statutes and therefore, technically, illegal.“The feds have made it extremely difficult,” says Dr. Eric Brown, a faculty family physician at Eastern Maine Medical Center’s family residency training program, who also teaches addiction medicine. While Brown has not recommended marijuana to any patients, he says, “I certainly have patients who use it.” Marijuana use is common among AIDS patients experiencing nausea and loss of appetite, he says. “Many of them see it as a treatment for depression. They say it makes them feel better, makes their lives better.”Depression, however, is not among the qualifying medical conditions specified in the law. Permitted use falls under four categories:
1) Persistent nausea, vomiting, wasting syndrome, or loss of appetite as a result of AIDS, chemotherapy, or radiation treatment;
2) Heightened intraocular pressure as a result of glaucoma;
3) Seizures associated with a chronic, debilitating disease, such as epilepsy; and
4) Persistent muscle spasms associated with a chronic disease, such as multiple sclerosis.
Dr. John Woytowicz, a family physician practicing in Augusta, sees approximately 15 patients who use marijuana under the provisions of the law. “Using marijuana is not where we start,” he says. He points out that the legislation requires “a bona-fide physician-patient relationship.” Woytowicz says he recommends marijuana only at the patient’s request, and only for symptoms, such as seizures, that do not respond to other treatment.
“I don’t want to do it without having an ongoing relationship with the patient,” Woytowicz says. “I tell them that if I’m not their primary care doctor, I want to see them at least every six months.” He admits that he has had “a couple patients disappear on me.”
The law does not allow physicians to prescribe marijuana or to assist in supplying it to patients. And it sets strict limits: Patients must either grow their own marijuana or have a designated caregiver grow it for them. Only six plants are allowed, of which only three may be flowering at any one time, and possession is limited to 2.5 ounces of harvested marijuana.
“Most people can’t grow enough of it,” Woytowicz says. But the law specifically protects physicians whose patients violate its limits. “I’m limited to reviewing the request and determining whether it’s appropriate within the law,” he says. “When people do things wrong—if they grow an extra pound and keep it in the back room—that’s not my problem.”
“The law is written in such a way that it puts all the responsibility on the patient,” says Hans DeWitt, a 39-year-old western Maine resident who uses marijuana to mitigate the effects of chemotherapy. A colon cancer patient, DeWitt says he consumes approximately four grams of pot a day—an ounce a week—either by smoking it, or, more frequently, using a vaporizor. “I also make a mean cup of tea,” he says. DeWitt claims the drug “gives me a quality of life I once had when I was healthy.” He has tried Marinol, a synthesized form of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, but says it does not suppress his nausea and stimulate his appetite as well as marijuana does.
“Some patients feel that Marinol is as effective, and others say that marijuana works better,” Woytowicz says. “I think there is reasonable science to suggest that, in some cases, there are more benefits than there are risks.”
David Bunn, 53, of Brownville Junction, a marijuana activist and medicinal marijuana user, says the various pills he has taken over the years for persistent muscle spasms have caused damage to his liver and kidneys. He says the law offers patients a degree of protection that was unavailable to them prior to 1999. “Now, when I go into the hospital, the doctors have to acknowledge my marijuana use and prescribe around it,” he says.
Medicinal marijuana laws vary from state to state. According to Julie Gadapee of East Corinth, Vermont, marijuana may be used there to treat chronic pain. The law, unlike Maine’s, does not spell out a limited number of specific conditions that may be the cause of the pain. Gadapee, 40, suffers from brittle bone disease and fibromyalgia. “I’d rather be addicted to pot than to Percocet or Oxycontin,” she says.
Despite legal protection, many physicians are reluctant to recommend marijuana to their patients, Woytowicz says. “I think it’s hard for people to find a physician who’s willing to do it.” A proposed new bill, LD 1418, “An Act to Provide Patients with Their Medication,” would change “physician” to “practitioner,” meaning that anyone legally empowered to write prescriptions, such as a physician’s assistant, would be allowed to recommend marijuana. The bill would also create a legal distribution network similar to California’s, which has run afoul of federal authorities. The state legislature’s Joint Standing Committee on Health and Human Services heard testimony from proponents and opponents of the bill in April, but voted against passage.
Patients and their suppliers, meanwhile, continue to live under a cloud of criminal prosecution. Dan Christen, 54, of Madison, who grows pot for his cancer-stricken wife and another patient who has appointed him as a caregiver, faces a 14-month prison sentence and two years probation for aggravated marijuana trafficking and aggravated cultivation, even though he was arrested for growing 13 plants—one over the allotment for two patients. “It should be at most a $200 misdemeanor,” says Christen, who contends that he is being singled out for his outspoken advocacy of legalization. Christen is the founder of Maine Vocals, a pro-marijuana organization.
Dr. Eric Brown cautions that marijuana, like many other herbal medicines, delivers other substances into the body besides the ones targeted to the patient’s symptoms. “One of the problems is that marijuana smoke, just like cigarette smoke, contains hundreds of chemicals,” he says. And because most of the supply comes from unregulated, illegal sources, “I can’t tell the patients what they’re going to get.”
Another problem, according to Brown, is potentially harmful side effects, particularly for people suffering from mental disorders such as paranoia and schizophrenia. “People need to be sanguine about the fact that it does have side effects,” he says. “I really think there are other medications that are better.”
Roy McKinney, head of the Maine Drug Enforcement Task Force, agrees. “The evidence (for marijuana as medicine) just isn’t there yet, and certainly not with smoking it as a delivery system,” he says. “I know of no other medicine that’s delivered that way.”
Others disagree. Writing in The Boston Globe, Dr. Lester Grinspoon, Harvard Medical School professor and drug researcher, says, “Marijuana is effective at relieving nausea and vomiting, spasticity, appetite loss, certain types of pain, and other debilitating symptoms. And it is extraordinarily safe—safer than most medicines prescribed every day.”
Dr. Woytowicz sees little sense in denying patients legal access to a substance that has the potential to help them. “We don’t know everything,” he admits, “but if you’re suffering, why not try it? Over time, we’ll learn more.”
Maine Organization Works to Legalize Marijuana in State
April 24th, 2007
CHELSEA EAKIN
Last week, retired police captain Peter Christ spoke at the College about what he sees as the failures of existing U.S. drug policy and the potential to regulate drugs through decriminalization. Christ visited the College as part of his 10-day tour through Maine, sponsored by the Maine Marijuana Policy Initiative (MMPI), an organization that works to legalize marijuana in the state of Maine. The talk was part of the Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement annual lecture series.
Christ spoke on behalf of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), an organization founded in 2002 comprised of current and retired law enforcement officers who call for an end to drug prohibition by changing current drug policy. “We’re not talking about making [drugs] available, we’re talking about regulating and controlling their distribution,” Christ said in his lecture. “Once we set policy, we forget it; we just move on, we don’t rethink.”
In his speech, Christ likened LEAP to Vietnam Veterans Against the War, a group of Vietnam veterans who spoke out against the war. “You don’t have to agree with our conclusion about drug policy in this country, but don’t even suggest that we don’t understand the problem,” Christ said. “We’re the ones that fought in the trenches of this drug war; we kind of understand the problem.”
Jonathan Leavitt, executive director of MMPI, said Christ’s tour had been a success. “He spoke to numerous civic groups, universities, churches. He spoke on numerous radio shows, we got him on cable in three dozen towns…and a ton of newspaper articles got written up,” Leavitt said. “It was the right discussion to do and hopefully will lead people back to our work.”
MMPI is a young organization, “We started work back in April of last year and are here to end marijuana prohibition in Maine. That is our goal and that is what we intend to do,” Leavitt said. “We want to make reality out of a system of community regulation, on par with alcohol or something like that.”
Currently, medical marijuana is legal in Maine. However, federal law trumps state law, and thus federal law enforcement can still arrest people for using the drug. Recently a bill, LD 1418, which would strengthen the medical marijuana law enacted in Maine in a 1999 referendum, was filed in the Legislature by Sen. Ethan Strimling (D-Portland). Leavitt said the bill, which will be considered on Apr. 23, “would significantly improve the medical marijuana law. It would allow people to set up dispensaries and it would up the amount of plants people are allowed to cultivate. It opens doors for people other than doctors to be able to recommend marijuana in terms of nurse practitioners and people like that. Doctors are too conservative and too scared to move forward on this.” Maine is one of 12 states that have legalized the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.
According to Leavitt, marijuana is the number one cash crop in the state of Maine. “If you go into any small town I think in Maine at this point you’re going to find that 20 to 30 percent of people are connected to the economics of marijuana in some form,” he said.
The MMPI website states that “With marijuana being the number one cash crop in the state, a system of taxation and regulation could bring much needed revenues to cash-strapped local governments and help build a sustainable economic system.”
Asked about what type of people are involved with the organization, Leavitt said that “the stereotype of who supports this issue is not the reality. Right now we have Republicans, lawyers from Maine, we have people who are living off the grid, people who are 75 years old, people who are teenagers. We know based on what they fill out [when they join the organization] that we have a pretty significant cross section in Maine.”
Maine: Bill would enhance medical pot law
April 9th, 2007
MAINE: Bill would enhance medical pot law
By PAUL CARRIER, Portland Press Herald Staff Writer Maine Sunday Telegram
Sunday, April 8, 2007The Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee will hold a public hearing on LD 1418, An Act to Provide Patients with their Medications, at 1 p.m. April 12 in Room 209 of the Cross State Office Building in Augusta.
AUGUSTA - Supporters of a state law that allows Mainers to use marijuana for medicinal purposes want the state to register distributors who could buy, grow and sell the plant to people who are legally entitled to it. That’s one of several provisions in a bill filed in the Legislature by Sen. Ethan Strimling, D-Portland, to strengthen the medical marijuana law that Mainers enacted in a 1999 referendum.
That law allows people to use marijuana to ease the pain of cancer, glaucoma and other specified illnesses, on the recommendation of a doctor.
Maine is one of 12 states - New Mexico joined the list earlier this month - that have legalized the use of marijuana for medical reasons.
Backers of the Maine law say the Legislature must beef it up to make it workable. Critics say the proposed changes are wrongheaded because federal law prohibits marijuana use.
Strimling’s bill would order the state Department of Health and Human Services to create a registry of nonprofit corporations that could dispense marijuana to people who have permission to use it.
The bill would increase the amount of marijuana a user can legally possess from 2.5 ounces of harvested plant and six plants to 2.5 ounces and 12 plants. It would allow nurse practitioners, not just doctors, to authorize marijuana use for medicinal purposes.
“We need to do what we can do” at the state level, Strimling said. Although Maine voters passed the law eight years ago, he said, “we have yet to figure out a system to get people their medication.”
The proposal would direct the state to issue identification cards to eligible patients and permit marijuana use for diseases that are not covered by the current law, including Crohn’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease.
The bill would prohibit any Maine police officer from helping federal agents investigate, arrest or prosecute anyone holding a valid state marijuana card, unless the case involves a violation of state law. Any police officer who violates that ban would be suspended or fired, according to the bill.
“The law that’s in place right now in Maine for medical marijuana is not acceptable,” said Jonathan Leavitt of the Maine Marijuana Policy Initiative, which supports legalizing marijuana and strengthening the medicinal law.
“Without dispensaries being set up, it’s not a real option,” he said of the current law.
Leavitt said the state should increase the number of allowable plants because “a lot of these people need their medication constantly throughout the day,” so the existing six-plant limit is too small.
The current law is so weak “it’s nonexistent,” said Scott Coolong of Strong, who says he sold marijuana for medicinal and recreational use and smoked it to control panic attacks following heart surgery until he was arrested last year and convicted on trafficking and cultivation charges.
The state Attorney General’s Office had taken no position on Strimling’s bill as of Friday, but the legislation has its critics, including the state Department of Public Safety, home of the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency.
Marijuana use is “a violation of federal law,” said MDEA Director Roy McKinney, and “no state has the power to give citizens the right to violate federal law.” The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that the federal ban remains in effect in states that have medical-marijuana laws.
The Maine Medical Association probably will oppose expanding the law to include more diseases because “there are other (prescription) drugs for all of those conditions that most physicians would say are equally effective,” said Andrew MacLean, an official there.
“I think it will be hard” to strengthen the law because “there’s still a stigma attached to this” for some people, said Strimling.
Despite opposition from some quarters, he said, “people need their medicine.” He said his mother used marijuana in California for several months to alleviate pressure caused by glaucoma.
Staff Writer Paul Carrier can be contacted at 622-7511 or at: pcarrier@pressherald.com
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/statehouse/070408medicalpot.html
Retired cop denounces U.S. drug policy
April 4th, 2007
By M. Dirk Langeveld , Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
NORWAY - A retired police officer told about 20 people Monday night at the First Universalist Church that U.S. drug policy should switch from prohibiting the use of illegal substances to regulating them.
Peter J. Christ (pronounced crist) of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition spoke as part of a 10-day tour through Maine. His talk was sponsored by the Maine Marijuana Policy Initiative.
“My least favorite group to speak to is a group like this one,” said Christ, “because this is essentially speaking to the choir.” No one challenged his opinions.
Christ retired after a 20-year career as a police officer working in Tonawanda, N.Y. He said his opinions on U.S. drug policy were formed before he joined the force and were solidified after five years on the job.
His work with LEAP seeks to replace the country’s existing drug policy, which makes certain drugs illegal to possess, with a system to regulate them.
“You can’t regulate something that’s illegal,” he said.
He denounced the “war on drugs” moniker given to the drug policy, saying it was an attempt to stifle disagreement with it or call for its end.
LEAP uses the term “prohibition” for banning possession of certain drugs in the United States, similar to the prohibition of alcohol in the 1920s and 1930s.
He argued that prohibiting possession of certain drugs increases their danger and puts the drug market in the hands of the Mafia and other criminal organizations. He said 75 percent of drug-related deaths are due to the dangers of the drug trade itself, and the rest to personal abuse.
“Legalization of drugs is not an approach to our drug problem,” he said. “It’s an approach to our crime problem.”
Drugs were organized into five categories, based on the potential for abuse, by the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. Schedule 1 drugs, which include marijuana and heroin, are listed as having the highest potential for abuse and no medicinal properties, and are banned in the United States.
Strong sentiments given on pot ordinance
April 4th, 2007
Strong sentiments given on pot ordinance
By Tom Standard , Special to the Sun Journal
Thursday, March 29, 2007
SUMNER - A public hearing on an ordinance to make enforcement of marijuana laws the lowest priority in town drew strong responses on both sides of the issue Tuesday night.
Barbara Kolln, one of 26 people who attended. said she knew many people whose drug problems began with marijuana. She also objected to holding the hearing in the Hartford-Sumner School building because it implied that using and growing marijuana was acceptable and sent the wrong message to the community and children.
Sumner resident Jonathan Leavitt, director of the Maine Marijuana Policy Initiative, said the war on drugs is costing trillions of dollars but doing nothing to address the thousands dying from cigarettes and drunks driving the roads. He said he uses marijuana and still considered himself a good parent and a responsible capable member of the community.
Travis Tripp, an ex-Marine veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, said his objection to the present system was overzealous law enforcement. He said the state spent more than $20,000 to send two SWAT teams on a raid of his family home when one person could have come and checked out the situation. One of his family members was arrested and prosecuted, but was exonerated, he said.
Noelle Lueck also objected to excessive law enforcement. She said low-flying helicopters have made her hens stop laying and stampeded her horses through the fence where they could have been hurt or caused an accident.
Lueck asserted that many law enforcement agencies concentrate on pot and ignore real crime. She said they’re interested in confiscating and selling people’s property just because they have a few pot plants so they can buy cruisers and other toys with the proceeds.
She said she didn’t see why tax dollars were being spent on marijuana when there are people driving drunk.
Selectman Cliff McNeil backed the law enforcement community, saying they are needed. He objected to the ordinance because it is not enforceable.
Selectmen’s Assistant Cynthia Norton challenged Leavitt’s statement that the ordinance would not be a burden on the town. She said she read the ordinance, and it would place a significant burden on she and Town Clerk Susan Runes. She also said it would be wrong for the town to ask police to not do their sworn duty.
Harvey “Hap” Gallon said while he has no problem with adults having a little “something,” he thought he had been misled by those who asked him to sign the petition for the ordinance.
School board member Lana Pratt said she was led to believe the petition was about medical marijuana. She said that during her 30-year teaching career she had experience with children who used marijuana. She said she found that even children who only used it on weekends had significant short-term memory loss and lowered performance.
Ex-officer likens drug war to prohibition
April 4th, 2007
By DOUG HARLOW
Staff Writer-Kennebec Journal Morning sentinel
WATERVILLE — Retired police officer Peter Christ on Tuesday compared the contemporary war on drugs to National Prohibition of the 1920s.
He even likened the bloody St. Valentine’s Day Massacre to a “drug-related shooting” in today’s big cities.
“When some reporter writes a story about a drug-related shooting, the reader says, ‘See what drugs cause,’” he said. “Not one reporter in 1929, when reporting on the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, referred to that as an alcohol-related shooting. They all called it what it was — a Prohibition-related shooting.”
He said the same is true today. Drug policy, drug sales and drug turf wars end up in gunplay; it is not people high on drugs shooting it out.
Therefore, he said, it is the nation’s failed drug policy that is causing the problems. He is calling for the legalization — with strict regulation and control — of all drugs: Marijuana, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and LSD.
Christ, who spent 20 years as a captain on the police force of in Tonawanda, N.Y., near Buffalo, is a founding member of LEAP — Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.
He spoke to students at Colby College on Tuesday afternoon on the topic of cocaine and later in the day in a Goldfarb lecture on the Mayflower Hill campus.
The title of the lecture was “War on Drugs? Or War on People?”
The program was sponsored by the Maine Marijuana Policy Initiative and Colby’s Goldfarb Center For Public Affairs and Civic Engagement.
Christ (rhymes with wrist) said the non-profit LEAP was formed in 2002 and now has roughly 8,000 members, including 800 retired law enforcement officers.
“We are law enforcement against prohibition — it’s all drugs — what we talk about is the policy of prohibition as being detrimental to society,” he said. “We know that policy of prohibition is at the root of most of the crime and violence we associate with drugs in our society.”
Christ, 60, said 75 percent of drug-related crime and violence come from people fighting over the marketplace — who is going to sell what on what corner at what time.
“What we are about is shutting down that illegal market, so that we can take this money away from the gangsters,” he said.
Christ compared the drug market to the old “numbers rackets,” where illegal gambling was conducted based on what numbers came up on a given day. He said that game is still in town — only now it is called the lottery.
“That didn’t solve our gambling problem,” he said. “Legalization of drugs is not to be considered as an approach to our drug problem. Legalization of drugs is about our crime and violence and today, terrorism, problems that are financing themselves off this illegal marketplace.”
He said well-intentioned police and prosecutors appear to favor a policy of prohibition over a policy of regulation, all the while living with the reality that drugs are not going to go away. Drugs are available, but with no guarantee of purity or distribution sites, he said.
Christ said that, like alcohol use, drug use is not the problem. He said addiction and abuse are the problems.
He said U.S. laws target the small-time user of, say, marijuana, as a criminal, which fills the nation’s jails and prisons with non-violent offenders.
He said 10 to 15 percent of all drug users are addicted. The rest are casual users.
“Any form of regulated marketplace is better than what we have now,” he said. “We’re going to have to figure out how to regulate these drugs. It’s a war on people — we aren’t putting drugs in prison; we are putting people in prison.”
He said members of LEAP believe that all of the drugs mentioned are dangerous and that they must be regulated and controlled.
“Now, here’s the reality,” he said. “When you chose the policy of prohibition to deal with these drugs, you give up all of your ability to regulate and control.”
Relearning value of repeal
March 9th, 2007
More recently voters here approved, by a substantial majority, a proposal legalizing the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes. Unfortunately, this humane gesture was trumped by a federal court ruling. In any case, low-level possession is just a civil violation here, subject to a fine but not incarceration. On the other hand, cultivation and sale of marijuana remains a misdemeanor or felony, carrying possible jail terms ranging from six months to 10 years. That’s why legalization of marijuana could go a long way toward easing the pressure on the state’s corrections system while eliminating a large segment of the underground drug business and dramatically reducing costs for enforcement, prosecution and jailing. It would also represent a serious nod in the direction of reality and common sense, bringing an already flourishing enterprise under effective government control. The quality and safety of cannabis would be regulated, sales would be handled legitimately through existing (and auditable) retail markets, the state would benefit from new sales tax revenues and, yes, fewer people would be languishing in jail at public expense.
As a practical matter, pot legalization is not likely to come about in any effective degree without congressional action. But there’s nothing that says the states can’t show the way. Indeed, Maine and other states have been taking the lead on numerous issues of national concern, from the environment and energy conservation to health care and campaign finance reform. So why not this one? This weekend, residents of West Paris will be voting on an initiated local ordinance calling for this small Oxford County town, population under 2,000, to be declared a low-priority enforcement zone with respect to marijuana-related offenses. The community doesn’t have a police force of its own. If passed, the law would apply to the county sheriff’s office, which has jurisdiction in West Paris. It’s questionable whether the ordinance would be legal, let alone enforceable. Nevertheless, its passage could send a small message to Augusta that there is grassroots sentiment in Maine for pot law reform and that the issue needs to be discussed — seriously — at the state level.
It’s generally agreed that marijuana is no more harmful than other recreational drugs that are perfectly legal — alcohol and tobacco — so why not treat all three the same way? One of the hoary arguments against the legalization of marijuana is that its use opens the door to drugs that are more serious and harmful. OK, but the connection is not inevitable, any more than recreational drinking necessarily leads to alcoholism. Prohibition should have taught us that most official drug control policies are doomed to failure as long as we treat drug abuse as criminal rather than as a health matter. Maybe the legalization of marijuana will open our minds to more imaginative and effective ways of pursuing the so-called war on drugs. Instead of sinking millions into the arrest, trial and imprisonment of drug abusers, we could be diverting some of those resources to less costly — and far more effective — prevention and treatment programs. Maine is not the only state where prison overcrowding has become a significant problem. In fact, Maine is a low crime state, boasting the smallest ratio of imprisonment per capita among all the states.
Nationally, nearly a million Americans are currently sitting in jail cells for committing non-violent drug offenses. Some of them are sitting in Maine cells, putting an unnecessary burden on facilities that should be reserved for more serious crimes. We should consider converting a tax burden into a tax asset. By legalizing marijuana, we could get rid of a shabby but inoffensive aspect of the drug trade, officially take over distribution rights and pour a few more dollars — a lot more, actually — into the state treasury. Maine has special experience in such matters. This state banned the sale and possession of alcoholic spirits from the mid-19th century to the 1930s. That sorry period in our history was marked by crime, scandal and the high cost of enforcement. Isn’t it about time we relearned the value of repeal?
Jim Brunelle is a weekly columnist and has been commenting on Maine issues for more than 40 years. He lives in Cape Elizabeth and can be reached at jbrune@maine.rr.com.
Propaganda has clouded perception of marijuana
February 27th, 2007
By Jonathan Leavitt , Special to the Sun Journal
Sunday, February 25, 2007
On March 3, voters in West Paris have the opportunity to support a proposed ordinance to make enforcement of adult marijuana laws the lowest enforcement priority for law officers performing their duties in West Paris. Although it would be the first of its kind in Maine, communities in seven other states have moved forward with similar ordinances.
Many people in West Paris are asking legitimate questions about the proposed ordinance, such as “Why here, and why now?” Why pick a small, rural community, that doesn’t even have its own police force, and certainly does not consider itself a jumping-off point for a policy discussion?
The reality is that much of Maine is reflected in a town like West Paris. Town government is still under the watchful eye of the last generation, which did not grow up surrounded by a culture that included recreational use of marijuana. And some residents in West Paris have bought into the 80-plus years of government propaganda around the issue of marijuana prohibition.
The other side is that West Paris, like every other community in the state, is full of people who smoke marijuana, grow marijuana, or have family members and friends who do. It is the number one cash crop in Maine, according to activists who support an end to prohibition and the enforcement agencies charged with maintaining the drug war in its entire splendor.
And it is here, in West Paris, where nearly 100 residents signed a petition asking to bring this issue forward.
This ordinance will not cost the town any money, but will help redirect tax dollars towards enforcement of real crimes. It will not create paperwork for the town, with the exception of an annual letter to elected officials sent by the town clerk. And - despite the shrill misrepresentations coming from a few residents - it will not prevent law enforcement officers from doing their job. It is a practical and common sense solution on how local communities can begin to change the failed drug policies that have put our country in a straightjacket.
So, what happens if West Paris residents recognize that all marijuana prohibition does is ensure that honest discussions are unheard? Well, then they vote to support this ordinance, and parents and kids in West Paris would actually begin communicating truthfully about the pros and cons of marijuana use.
What if West Paris residents recognize it is prohibition that creates the “gateway” to substance abuse, and the only reason some people are more likely to use other drugs after marijuana is because buying something illegal exposes them to an underground economy? Well, then they vote to support this ordinance, and we would move one step closer to ending the shady “criminal” underworld of drug dealing and the resulting violence.
What if West Paris residents view this in the way other countries have come to see this issue: as one of public health, not criminal justice? Well, then they vote to support this ordinance, and we would move closer to joining countries with permissive approaches to marijuana that have lower percentages of teenage marijuana smokers than the United States.
West Paris residents are smart enough to fully understand the legacy of failure that began over 80 years ago. It’s a legacy that has cost this country billions of dollars of wasted taxpayer money, while destroying millions of lives caught in the criminal justice system. We believe West Paris residents can help the state of Maine move forward to a policy that treats marijuana the way we treat alcohol: with community oversight and regulation.
But to do any of this we must first get local governments and local residents to voice their opinion. This is why we are here in West Paris. There is never a bad time to do the right thing, and the right thing to do for our communities, our state, and our country, is to end marijuana prohibition.
Passing a “Lowest Law Enforcement Priority Ordinance” will not change our arcane and destructive laws, but it will be a small step in that direction.
Jonathan Leavitt is director of the Maine Marijuana Policy Initiative. He lives in Sumner.
Marijuana advocates want town to spark legalization
February 27th, 2007
By Sylvia McCann , Special to the Sun Journal
Sunday, February 25, 2007 LoadRelated();
The proud community of West Paris has a serious, important article in its town meeting warrant for March 3. It seems insignificant because it is unenforceable, but the details mandate actions with which townspeople may disagree regardless of how they feel about lessening punishments for adult-related marijuana offenses.
At first glance, the ordinance intends to make investigating, citing, seizing, arresting and prosecuting adult marijuana offenses in West Paris the “lowest law enforcement priority.” The fine print contains a more frightening agenda.
West Paris law enforcement includes the Oxford County Sheriff’s Office and the Maine State Police who “shall abide by the lowest law enforcement priority policy.” West Paris would also be prohibited from accepting state or federal funds intended to investigate or enforce existing marijuana laws.
Would paying taxes to support officers enforcing current drug laws be considered noncompliance with the ordinance? The town could not cooperate with state and federal agents. If a neighbor were growing 50 acres of pot, the town would have to inform police that this is of “lowest law enforcement priority.”
This proposal would require notifying state and federal elected officials of the enactment of the ordinance, a persuasive tactic to urge complete legalization of marijuana. The town manager would have to send annual letters to the voters, the governor, state senators and representatives, Maine’s congressional delegation and the president.
The letter must state, “The citizens of West Paris have passed an initiative to de-prioritize the marijuana-related offenses and request the federal and Maine state governments take immediate steps to legally tax and regulate marijuana use, cultivation, and distribution, and to authorize state and local communities to do the same. This duty shall be carried out until state and federal laws are changed accordingly.”
West Paris would be part of a nationwide group of marijuana legalization advocates, attempting to force its ideas on the country by infiltrating small American towns that would, through the ordinance, be spokesmen for them.
The ordinance would mandate the creation of an “oversight committee” to oversee the implementation of the ordinance. It would be composed of one civil liberties advocate, one medical marijuana user, and one substance abuse and drug counselor from West Paris.
If either of the latter positions were unfilled, a civil libertarian would fill it. The committee would collect data, ensure compliance with the ordinance, collect grievances from those cited for disobeying current laws, create a paper form for police to report all information regarding marijuana offenders and citing officers, and require reports from the County District Attorney and any other agency enforcing the current laws.
Each officer would have to report to the committee within five days of any action taken. Where is our right to privacy? How much time would be taken from more important duties to fill out West Paris paperwork and be “grilled” by the committee to justify performing activities defined in officers’ job descriptions?
This ordinance is unenforceable. It simply gives proponents of legal marijuana the use of the town to demand marijuana legalization on the federal level.
The generous and thoughtful people of West Paris support fire victims, the sick, the poor, our military men, veterans, and children. Through cooperation and hard work we have realized things of which other communities can only dream.
I urge each West Paris citizen to vote according to their beliefs. But consider the riders in the ordinance, which could subject West Paris to ridicule, lawsuits, and great expenditures. Does the town want to be required to urge the local and federal governments to legalize pot? This ordinance does not address medicinal use of marijuana.
We would be scrutinized nationwide, cited as one of the first to oppose our country’s laws, and held as an example of a town turning traitor to the laws “we the people” have adopted because we hold them just and right.
America has an existing system for rescinding laws and making new ones. The procedure starts with state legislators. Why would West Paris not follow proper channels?
Why would we want to defy America’s laws?
Sylvia McCann is the spokesman for Citizens Against Article 11. She lives in West Paris
|
|
