Dear Editor:

(Re: "My good friend and the foolish war on drugs," by John Colson, Aspen Times Weekly, Sept. 30)

If health outcomes determined drug laws instead of cultural norms, marijuana would be legal.

Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose death, nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco. Marijuana can be harmful if abused, but jail cells are inappropriate as health interventions and ineffective as deterrents.

The first marijuana laws were enacted in response to Mexican immigration during the early 1900s, despite opposition from the American Medical Association. Dire warnings that marijuana inspires homicidal rages have been counterproductive at best. White Americans did not even begin to smoke pot until a soon-to-be entrenched government bureaucracy began funding reefer madness propaganda.

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The pro-marijuana organization behind the referendum that made penalties for pot on the University of Colorado campus no greater than those for alcohol is encouraging suspended running back Ricky Williams to join the Denver Broncos.

Officials with SAFER, or Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation, will unveil a billboard across the street from Invesco Field in Denver at noon tomorrow supporting Williams' notorious use of marijuana and encouraging him to push for a spot on the Broncos.

Williams, who just completed an 18-month suspension from the NFL for violating the league's drug policy for the fourth time, filed for league reinstatement yesterday and is awaiting approval.

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It was only Monday that running back Ricky Williams' agent announced that the football star applied for NFL reinstatement after violating the league's drug policy for marijuana. But Denver's pot proponents were way ahead of the curve, arranging for a billboard outside Invesco Field at Mile High requesting that Williams bring his running game to the pot friendly Mile High City.

"Why on earth would the NFL steer some of the biggest, strongest and toughest men in America away from marijuana and toward a drug (alcohol) that contributes to violent and aggressive behavior?" asked Mason Tvert, executive director of Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER). "In Denver, the people support Ricky Williams' safer choice, and we would be delighted to see him come play for the Broncos."

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An activist group that successfully campaigned to repeal a pot possession law in Denver wants running back Ricky Williams to sign with the Broncos.

The group, Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation, said today that it will lease a billboard across from Invesco Field at Mile High beckoning Williams to Denver "where people support your safer choice."

Williams, who is currently under suspension from the National Football League for violating the drug policy four times, applied for reinstatement Monday.

Safer spokesman Mason Tvert said the group's billboard will go up Wednesday. A design released today showed an orange and blue sign with the back of a dreadlocked man in a Bronco's uniform.

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RIFLE - A methamphetamine treatment wing is being considered as a possible eventual addition to Garfield County's new community corrections center.

The addition is proposed as part of the county's five-year plan.

The meth wing would be built in response to a growing problem of local meth use. The community corrections center's director, Guy Meyer, said the addition would allow for 45-day, in-house treatment in a residential setting, apart from the rest of the center's population. Meth users requiring such treatment now must be sent to facilities outside the county.

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I have a good friend who smokes more pot than anyone I've ever known, and he does it legally, at least when he's in his home state of California.

Toby [can't give you his real name, those assholes at Homeland Security might be reading this] is one of those guys who lives to laugh, and whose laugh goes far beyond infectious.

When we walk through desert canyons - one of our favorite activities - - and Toby starts to laugh, you expect the rocks to chuckle right along, or at least crack a smile.

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Two Colorado anti-methamphetamine programs on Friday received $375,000 in grants to fight what Attorney General John Suthers calls a "meth epidemic."

Suthers announced that $200,000 is going to the Colorado Alliance for Drug Endangered Children, and $175,000 has been awarded to a meth treatment pilot program in Delta County.

The money for the grants was provided by the Daniels Fund.

"In my lifetime, it's the worst drug we've seen," in part because it's so addictive, Suthers said.

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No one would have blamed Bob Boswell for sending Jennifer Henessee up the river. She stole cash from his restaurant, frightened his employees and threw a pretty good scare into him, as well. After all, the restaurant is his business, his livelihood.

Who wouldn't want to lock up someone like that, throw away the key and say good riddance?

But instead of hatred, Boswell saw desperation in Henessee's eyes. He knew she needed help instead of a jail sentence, and he called Weld District Attorney Ken Buck and wondered if there was anything he could do to help her.

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A state task force fighting methamphetamine abuse will use $375,000 in new grant money to help children of meth users and fund a program to treat addicts and ease them back into the community.

The Daniels Fund provided $200,000 to the Colorado Alliance for Drug Endangered Children, and $175,000 that will go to a meth treatment pilot program in Delta County.

The Alliance worked closely with the state Methamphetamine Task Force to create a program for communities to use when tackling meth abuse and its effects on children, said Attorney General John Suthers, who chairs the task force.

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What the needs assessments are used for:

The ultimate goal of the needs assessment is to create a plan to steer county health care development until 2020. That work will begin on Oct. 3 with a meeting in the Frisco Community Center from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Those interested in participating in the health needs strategic planning committee are welcome to attend.

- - Andy Bruner

Upcoming discussion

Residents will have an opportunity to share their opinions about health reform with members of the Blue Ribbon Commission for Health Care Reform at a community meeting in Silverthorne from 5-8 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 12, at the Silverthorne Library, 651 Center Circle.

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Your article asserts that "use did go up in the Netherlands, particularly among youths, when laws were liberalized there," as if that's evidence that the change in laws caused that increase. How, then, do you explain that in the U.S., where marijuana was legal until 1937, use went up only after we banned marijuana, according to U.S. government estimates?

That's right. For several decades now, marijuana use in the U.S. has been running at a level roughly 4,000 percent higher than when marijuana was fully legal.

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Re: "America's complex pot compromise," Sept. 18 news story.

Your article, while giving voice to the many sides of the cannabis debate, still misses the mark.

The great pot debate is not a debate at all. Without consideration of the corrupt foundation of pot's prohibition, there will be no conclusion to this perpetual game of tug-of-war. When the history lesson of pot's illegal status is learned, there is no conclusion to reach other than that penalizing personal use and/or cultivation is absurd.

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A picture of an AIDS patient smoking pot on the front page? Are you out of your mind? Where is the responsible journalism in deciding what pictures to show and what not to? This one definitely fell in the "what-not-to-print" category. An apology to all parents raising children should be issued. I know this is a liberal area, but you crossed the line in decency. Showing a pothead who has an incurable disease is completely unacceptable. Please think of the multitudes of parents showing our children what's right and what's not right.

G. Godsil, Arvada

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J. Adrian Stanley and the Independent deserve major kudos for an outstanding article on Matthew Schnur and his campaign on behalf of medical cannabis and those patients deriving benefit from its use. Well-written (among the best nationally I've read this year) with accurate inclusion of information and a humane view of Schnur as a patient advocate.

I have one little bone to pick. Schnur says, "I just think because of the recreational use, people have such a distortion about the use of this as medicine." Actually, it's the seven decades of demonization by the anti-drug fanatics in the U.S. who are responsible for that distortion. But Harry Anslinger, xenophobe and lifelong career bureaucrat, by presenting perjured testimony before Congress, initiated a campaign of lies and cultural bigotry that continues to this day.

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Matthew Schnur is advocating for the medical use of marijuana ("Bad medicine?" News, Sept. 6). While this seems innocent enough, seeing as how so many use marijuana recreationally, there are ample examples of adverse effects.

The medical fraternity is opposed to using marijuana to treat certain health conditions. The conservative medical profession has the health of the community at heart. I feel any drug that causes a change in a person's behavior should be used with caution. There are examples where a person can have a temporary loss of memory and no recollection of recent events. It is best to deal with the medical use of marijuana with great caution.

- -- Don Smith

Brisbane, Australia

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American Cancer Society spokesman David Sampson is not telling the truth when he claims ("Bad medicine?") that his organization is basing its reluctance to support medical marijuana on the 1999 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report.

The IOM report stated flatly, "Nausea, appetite loss, pain, and anxiety are all afflictions of wasting, and all can be mitigated by marijuana." Although the report expressed concerns about possible health hazards of smoking and called for the development of a "nonsmoked, rapid-onset cannabinoid delivery system," it specifically acknowledged that for some patients with chronic or terminal conditions, there is no feasible alternative at present.

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*Marijuana is a "gateway" drug that leads directly to use of harder drugs, such as cocaine or heroin.

The short answer is no. Police continue to make the claim, although they now acknowledge that their argument is based on gut feeling and anecdotes. Academic researchers, including RAND, note there is a "correlation" but not a "causation." In other words, many people who use marijuana eventually use other drugs as well. But that's like saying many people who drive blue cars have brown eyes - does one cause the other?

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Take one swift glance at a U.S. map coded to reflect the widely varying marijuana laws in each state, and drug policy seems to range from irrational to incoherent.

But dig into the details of public opinion, user behavior and police enforcement, and a more lucid picture of American attitudes comes into focus: People have learned to live with pot, up to a fine point.

As Denver ponders yet another ballot measure on marijuana Nov. 6 - to make pursuit of small amounts of pot the "lowest law-enforcement priority" - many communities may already have reached a complicated compromise that reflects the wisdom of research and the consistency of survey results.

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Sheriff's Office Says Information Indicates Marble Was Undercutting Mercado's Prices

Sheriff's investigators confirm they are pursuing leads that suggest Steven Marble was muscling into the local cocaine market by undercutting prices offered by rival Pedro Mercado, setting the stage for a violent confrontation in LaPorte that left Marble dead and Mercado hospitalized.

Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden confirmed his office is looking into whether the two men were rival cocaine dealers and said it's one of several angles investigators are pursuing.

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Local Man Tangles With American Cancer Society, Police in His Campaign to Promote Medical Marijuana

American Cancer Society officials didn't waste any time removing medical marijuana activist Matthew Schnur from their local event in August.

First, Schnur says, a volunteer scolded him, calling his efforts insulting to cancer patients. Then a director had police escort him out of the Relay for Life gathering.

Schnur is used to the rejection. Though he and others are working to prove marijuana is medicine, the medical community hasn't warmed to the idea.

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