Drug Enforcement Administration agent Daniel Dunlap seems to think he knows better than doctors when it comes to patient care and medical marijuana. While there have been studies showing that marijuana can shrink cancerous tumors, medical marijuana is essentially a palliative drug. If a doctor recommends marijuana to a cancer patient undergoing chemotherapy and it helps them feel better, then it's working. In the end, medical marijuana is a quality-of-life issue best left to patients and their doctors.

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As a retired police officer, I understand where my colleague, DEA agent Dunlap (Dec. 20 guest opinion), is coming from regarding marijuana prohibition. I enforced the 55 mph speed limit my entire 18-year career. It was a bad law and generated huge amounts of disrespect for law, as tens of millions of citizens circumvented the law by buying radar detectors.

Marijuana prohibition is quite similar; 100 million have smoked it, though none has died as a result.

DEA Dunlap defends prohibition because it is his paycheck on the line. Without the prohibition of drugs, he is on the street looking for a job in a bad economy.

He knows that tobacco and alcohol will kill at a roughly 40-to-1 ratio vs. illegal drugs. How dangerous a drug can be has never been the issue. Follow the money.

Officer Howard J. Wooldridge (retired)

education specialist, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition

Washington, D.C.

[end]

I am the mother and ex-wife of meth addicts. My son spent three years in prison due to meth use. I was disappointed to read about a study conducted in Australia that cast doubts about the impact the Montana Meth Project has made on our community. People don't realize that for some it can take only one use to get lost in a horrible world of addiction where entire families, friends and communities are affected.

Having worked for an attorney for five years, I have studied and watched the progress of the Montana Meth Project since its beginning. The statistics are amazing and the facts, the stories and the lives are real. When children are removed from their homes due to meth use, most are not reunited with their parents again. This is shattering families and devastating communities, so we need to do all we can to address this issue. I hope the Montana Meth Project will keep up the good work and that we continue to benefit from their efforts.

Brenda Lane Butte

[end]

A recent Gazette guest opinion by a retired Billings physician stated that "medical marijuana" is a safe and effective drug for use by patients with chronic pain and by cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. It asserted that legalizing, taxing and regulating marijuana production in America could generate $350 billion in revenue that could be "diverted from the drug lords" and applied to "education, treatment and a myriad of other societal needs." Allegations of the "incessant drumbeat of lies" by the Drug Enforcement Administration regarding marijuana's viability as a useful drug were also put forth, claiming that DEA wrongly insists marijuana is "highly addictive" and that it is a "gateway drug."

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HELENA - The author of a study critical of the Meth Project said Saturday that it is unlikely he will be able to accept the Montana governor's request to discuss his results with lawmakers.

David Erceg-Hurn, a doctoral student in psychology at the University of Western Australia, said he found Gov. Brian Schweitzer's interest encouraging, but said he has prior commitments over the next two months. He also cited a lack of funding for a trip to Montana.

The Montana Meth Project, copied in other states such as Wyoming, has criticized Erceg-Hurn's work as a limited analysis that misrepresents the true results. The Wyoming Meth Project uses similar methodology as the Montana Meth Project to reduce use of the drug.

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The United States is faced with two large, important, emotion-laden problems. Each has a very simple but extremely controversial solution that will require education of the people to overcome powerful lobbies - governmental and private. Each of these solutions can result in savings of at least $350 billion, which can finance needed changes in our society.

Legalize it, tax it The first twin is drug prohibition. Many do not realize that marijuana was America's largest cash crop in 2007 - exceeding corn, wheat and barley added together. If marijuana is legalized, taxed and regulated, at least $350 billion would be diverted from the drug lords into public coffers, according to the Marijuana Policy Project, Citizens for a Sane Drug Policy and the Drug Policy Alliance. It could then be used for education, treatment and myriad other societal needs.

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Across the nation thousands of schools, including a handful in Montana, have adopted random drug testing for students. Just this fall, Colstrip and Anaconda implemented random testing policies for extracurricular activities, while here in the Flathead, the Whitefish school district has looked into a similar plan, and is still considering it. Meanwhile, the district has implemented a suspicion-based policy that applies to all students, not just athletes.

Whether shifting to random testing or other methods, it's clear that school officials are actively looking for new ways to combat what they perceive as a growing drug problem, and the trend is picking up steam in Montana.

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Advocates of Montana's medical marijuana law hailed a Montana Supreme Court decision that safeguards the rights of sick probationers and parolees who are prescribed marijuana for pain relief.

In a 6-1 decision Tuesday, the high court said a district court judge in Pondera County exceeded her authority by sentencing a qualifying medical marijuana patient to three years of probation with the stipulation that he could not use medical marijuana.

The patient, Timothy S. Nelson of Conrad, uses medical marijuana to alleviate chronic pain from a car accident. Nelson suffers from a degenerative disc disorder and has had four surgeries on his back. He was thrown from a pickup truck in an accident involving a drunken driver, according to the decision, which was written by Justice Patricia O. Cotter.

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The director of a statewide medical marijuana advocacy group is calling a Wednesday decision by the Montana Supreme Court a "big victory" for the state's patients and voters.

In a 6-1 ruling, the high court said District Judge Laurie McKinnon overstepped her authority with two sentencing conditions she placed on Timothy Nelson of Conrad.

Nelson was charged in May 2006 after authorities searched his house and found evidence of a marijuana growing operation. He suffers from a degenerative disc disorder and was later accepted into Montana's medical marijuana program.

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Montana courts cannot bar medical marijuana patients from using the drug as a condition of their probation or parole, the state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.

The decision overturned a lower court's ruling that prohibited a Conrad man from using marijuana while serving a three-year deferred sentence.

"This is a very big and important victory, both for patients and Montana voters," said Tom Daubert, founder and director of Patients and Families United, a support group for patients who use medical marijuana.

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A third-grader who admitted smoking marijuana recently at Muldown Elementary School became one of the first students disciplined under the Whitefish School District's new suspicion-based drug-testing policy.

No one saw the boy smoking pot in the boys' restroom, Superintendent Jerry House said, but teachers could smell the smoke. Because teachers keep close track of who they let use the restroom, it wasn't difficult to find a likely suspect.

Other students confirmed school officials' suspicions, House said; the boy allegedly asked some of his peers if they wanted to smoke, too. When officials recovered a pipe, which was hidden under a shed on the playground, the boy confessed.

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Montana's U.S. senators announced a total of $1,551,374 for justice and law enforcement programs in communities across Montana on Monday. The 11 separate grants will fund anti-drug efforts, and police and firefighting efforts.

"Grants like this go a long way to keeping Montana the last best place," Sen. Max Baucus said. "From preventing drug use to keeping our streets safe, these dollars will be used to keep Montana the best place on earth to live, work and raise a family."

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LIVINGSTON -- Downtown Livingston has gone to pot.

In the open garage doorway of a small white warehouse, six blocks from the Park County Sheriff's Office and minutes from the nouveau eateries and art galleries where tourists stroll, Homer Terry churns ice into a 5-gallon bucket of marijuana.

It's a hot Friday afternoon. The whir of Terry's power drill and stir paddle mixes with the shovel chucks of a nearby railroad crew spreading gravel. He gives the customary Montana greeting of a slight head nod and an easy smile to passers-by, but otherwise he keeps working, blending bits of marijuana into a potent, smokable paste.

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HELENA - Summer Sutton-Day said all her husband, Scott Day, wanted in life was to live with as little pain as possible while helping others find a way to cope with their suffering.

Scott was diagnosed as a child with mucopolysaccharidosis, a rare congenital disease caused by the lack of certain enzymes which, over the course of his life, spawned diverse and severe physical pain and other serious health problems.

When he was diagnosed, doctors said he probably wouldn't live to see his twenties.

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WHITEFISH - School officials have backed away from mandatory random drug testing at Whitefish High School, but they now are considering a plan that would include voluntary testing of student athletes.

"We're trying to balance everyone's interests," said assistant principal Jeff Peck. "We're doing what we think is the right thing to do, to create a safe environment for all our students."

Previously, the school board had considered a controversial program that would have required random drug testing for any student participating in extracurricular activities.

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Yellowstone County law enforcement officials Tuesday evening encouraged residents to take action in drug prevention and education.

At the fourth annual Education and Action Meth Conference, U.S. Marshal Dwight MacKay, Yellowstone County District Attorney Dennis Paxinos, Billings Police Chief Rich St. John and Yellowstone County Undersheriff Jay Bell held a panel discussion with several dozen community members on drug enforcement in the county.

Methamphetamine is the No. 1 drug problem in Billings, St. John said, and local, state and federal agencies have been working together for several years to curb drug-related crimes in Montana. In 2007, task forces made up of police, sheriffs, U.S. Marshals and other agencies seized in Yellowstone County more than 3 pounds of meth. They have seized about 1.13 pounds of the drug so far in 2008.

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The recent announcement by the Montana Department of Corrections that parolees can smoke marijuana may have seemed like a drug-induced phantasm to the more level-headed among us, but it wasn't.

Instead, it was the (hopefully) unintended consequence of the 2004 ballot initiative that legalized the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes in Montana.

Of course, we argued all along that the 2004 initiative sent a mixed message about drug use to our citizenry, and this just adds to the muddle. All drug use, after all, is to some extent medicinal in purpose; it's just that it is usually self-prescribed instead of at the recommendation of a doctor.

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A week after the state Corrections Department abandoned a proposed rule that would have banned anyone on probation or parole from using medical marijuana, one Missoula man says he's already reaping the benefits.

"I was told that I could go ahead and toke up again," said David Michaud, 39, a convicted felon and stay-at-home dad who uses medical marijuana to relieve chronic migraine headaches, pain and nausea. "Now I'm just following my doctor's advice."

In 2000, Michaud was arrested with 4 ounces of marijuana during a ski trip to Breckenridge, Colo., and was subsequently convicted of felony drug possession. Earlier this year, Michaud and his wife moved to Montana, where he is registered as a medical marijuana patient and has four prescriptions for the drug signed by three physicians.

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HELENA - The state Department of Corrections has backed off from a proposed rule that would bar anyone on parole or probation from obtaining medical marijuana without a judge's approval.

Proponents of the medical marijuana law, passed by voters in 2004, argued during a March hearing that the law does not allow any penalty for using medical marijuana, regardless of a person's criminal history.

"Our hands are tied by the way the initiative-passed law was written," Diana Koch, chief legal counsel for the department, said in a statement Thursday. "As a result, those who have broken the law cannot be subject to this reasonable restriction."

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A vigorous community debate has been joined in Whitefish over drug and alcohol use by students and what should be done about it.

At the heart of the discussions is a proposal that, if approved by the Whitefish School Board, would require urinalysis testing of all students participating in extracurricular activities. These students also would have to submit to random drug testing throughout the season.

That possibility has proven both emotional and controversial, drawing praise and criticism from parents, counselors and other Whitefish citizens.

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