Pubdate: Sun, 23 Jun 2013
Source: News Tribune, The (Tacoma, WA)
Copyright: 2013 Tacoma News, Inc.
Contact: http://blog.thenewstribune.com/letters/submit/
Website: http://www.thenewstribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/442
Author: Rob Hotakainen

KENNEDY LEADS FIGHT AGAINST POT LEGALIZATION

WASHINGTON - Stung by momentum to legalize marijuana, opponents are
fighting back with an unlikely leader: a recovering drug addict and
liberal ex-congressman from Rhode Island named Patrick Kennedy, a
member of the famous political clan.

"I cannot be silent, and I don't imagine anyone else could be silent
if they knew the facts as I know the facts - and all I'm trying to do
is get those facts to the broader public," said Kennedy, son of the
late Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.

Spreading the word, Kennedy is traveling the country as chairman of
Project SAM (Smart Approaches to Marijuana), which he formed in
January and which now has affiliates in five states. Kennedy will
announce new affiliates July 1 in San Diego and July 10 in Seattle.

No stranger to substance abuse, Kennedy long ago made public his
battle with depression and alcohol and drug abuse, including an
addiction to the pain reliever OxyContin. In 2006, he fell asleep
behind the wheel and crashed his car into a barrier near the U.S.
Capitol. His problems forced him to retire from the House of
Representatives.

In an interview, Kennedy said he has smoked marijuana, but not
much.

"In spite of the fact that I'm also an asthmatic, I did try and
experiment with marijuana, but I quickly migrated to other drugs and
alcohol," he said.

He also once backed using marijuana as medicine. "I now stand
corrected by the science," said the 45-year-old Kennedy.

After making a mark in Congress promoting mental health, Kennedy said
he wasn't surprised by the legalization votes in Washington state and
Colorado in 2012, or by polls showing increased acceptance of marijuana.

"They're votes and they're polls that reflect my early opinions and
viewpoints, which were uneducated," Kennedy said. "When you don't have
the facts and when you don't have the public policy experts, then what
you have is a vacuum where anecdote and opinion become public policy
and reality. And that's dangerous."

Kennedy said he's partly to blame for the rush to legalize because he
didn't speak out sooner. But he said he didn't understand the big
picture until he began working with the National Institute on Drug
Abuse. Research now makes it clear that marijuana is a gateway drug
that can induce psychosis and cause teens to lose IQ points they'll
never recover, creating "devastating health consequences," he said.

Mason Tvert, spokesman for the pro-legalization Marijuana Policy
Project, called Kennedy a hypocrite.

"His family made millions off the sale of alcohol, and we hope that he
and his organization recognize that marijuana is far less harmful and
that adults should not face penalties just for using it," said Tvert,
adding that Kennedy wants to force marijuana users into "education
camps."

Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for
the Reform of Marijuana Laws, another pro-legalization group, said
Kennedy is relying on arguments from a past generation: "Most of the
stuff he's saying is about 20 to 30 years old."

"Over a 40-year period, there have been dozens to hundreds of
anti-marijuana groups - most of them don't really last very long and
they don't have much success," St. Pierre said. "We have to see in a
year or two or three if Project SAM is going to be around, or is it
just a flash in the pan?"

Kennedy said he understands the shots.

"We're a truth-telling organization," he said. "Their biggest threat
is that people will find out the truth. So it's not Patrick Kennedy
they need to be worried about - it's the truth."

Kennedy called the legalization effort "a knee-jerk reaction" and said
it will lead to more teens smoking pot, making more of them
susceptible to addiction. And with marijuana use surpassing tobacco
use among teens, Kennedy said they face a greater risk because of the
rising potency of the drug.

"This isn't your Woodstock weed," he said. "This is genetically
modified marijuana that is more closer to hashish. And its impact on
brain development, especially if teenagers are using it, is profound
and permanent."

In February, Kennedy asked Attorney General Eric Holder to enforce
federal law and not allow Colorado and Washington to sell and tax marijua
na.

"I woke up after the last election and saw there's kind of a wrinkle
in the whole environment dealing with mental health and addiction. =C2=85

It was hard to ignore that we're moving in the opposite direction,"
Kennedy said.
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