Pubdate: Fri, 11 Jan 2013
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2013 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: Megan Mitchell
Page: 4A

CASE AGAINST POT

Ex-Rep. Patrick Kennedy Brings Education Effort to Denver

Before former Rhode Island congressman Patrick Kennedy Jr. could 
introduce his national initiative to educate the public and policy 
makers about the health risks of pot use, he was taken to task as 
head of Smart Approaches to Marijuana.

"If Patrick Kennedy and his new organization want people to be 
educated about marijuana, he should start with himself," said Mason 
Tvert, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project and a leader in the 
successful campaign to legalize recreational pot use in Colorado. 
"The evidence is clear-marijuana is far less addictive and less 
harmful to the body than alcohol."

Tvert held an inpromptu press conference outside the Denver Press 
Club on Thursday morning about an hour before Kennedy and other 
members of the SAM coalition made their pitch.

Tvert said that anyone attempting to be a public educator about the 
health risks associated with marijuana must openly and honestly 
address how much more dangerous legal controlled substances like 
alcohol and tobacco are to public safety.

Inside the club, Kennedy, backed by a panel of doctors and 
politicians, disagreed.

Dr. Christian Thurstone, a Denver psychiatrist who conducts federally 
funded research on marijuana addiction, rattled off statistics about 
teenage marijuana use and addiction that contradicted claims of the 
drug's supposed harmlessness.

"Fifty-eight percent of all new users are under 18," he said. "And 
one in sixwho try it become addicted."

Thurstone said two-thirds of adolescents referred to his substance 
abuse clinic at Denver Health are there because of marijuana. High 
school expulsion rates for use or possession of weed is up 40 percent, he said.

As described by former drug policy adviser to the White House Kevin 
Sabet, SAM aims to spur a discussion of topics around marijuana use 
and misuse that he said were largely ignored during debates last year.

According to a news release from SAM, these topics include: the 
science of "today's marijuana;" the unintended consequences of pot 
policies, including the stigma of arrest; the possibility that the 
tobacco industry will morph into "big marijuana" and market to 
children; the understanding of marijuana's medical properties and 
research to produce "pharmacy-attainable medications."

Kennedy said marijuana legalization "slipped under the radar" and 
happened so quickly in Colorado and Washington that a counter 
organization had no room to speak and people "didn't know what their 
stake was in the debate."

He said SAM will give those groups a voice, finally.

Amendment 64, which legalized recreational use of marijuana 
inColorado, passed with 55 percent of the vote. Medical marijuana has 
been legal in the state since 2000.

During the campaign to legalize recreational pot use, the No on 64 
campaign raised just shy of $700,000 to fight the measure, about a 
quarter of the $2.5 million two main campaigns backing Amendment 64 raised.

"Like everyone else who woke up after Election Day and saw that 
(marijuana legalization) was moving fast in states like Colorado, I 
realized it looked as though the domino effect could move to other 
states quicker," Kennedy said. "I want to slow this train down and 
begin a discussion before other states rush to judgment."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom