But Supporters of Measure Say Pot Offers Relief

The nation's deputy drug czar on Friday said proponents of the medical marijuana initiative on the Nov. 7 ballot are playing to voters' sympathies to pass a dangerous measure.

"It's a step backwards in South Dakota and a step backwards nationally," said Scott Burns, deputy director of White House National Drug Control Policy, who spoke to reporters Friday. "Do not fall for the con."

If voters approve Initiated Measure 4, South Dakota would join 11 other states that allow some medical patients to grow and smoke marijuana to help ease their medical problems. Residents of those states still can face federal drug charges.

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I am glad to hear of John Cornette's expertise on marijuana and legalization (Press & Dakotan, Oct. 13). Therefore, I have a question for him:

In the past 100 years, there have been numerous government commissions around the world that have studied the marijuana laws and made recommendations for changes. Can you name any such study that supports your point of view?

I have already collected all the ones I could find, and I posted the full text of them at http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer under Major Studies of Drugs and Drug Policy. The collection includes the largest studies ever done by the governments of the U.S., the UK, Canada, and Australia, just to mention a few.

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I'm writing about Thomas D. Griffith's thoughtful letter: "Medical marijuana matters" (Press & Dakotan, Oct. 16).

I'd like to add that I support your medical marijuana amendment. However, it should not be necessary. It seems to me that adult citizens of a so-called free country should not need permission from their government to smoke, swallow, snort or inject any substance that they want -- especially in the privacy of their own homes.

If adult citizens are not free to choose for themselves what goes into their own bodies -- even in the privacy of their own homes, then the word freedom is meaningless, empty and hallow.

Kirk Muse

Mesa, Ariz.

[end]

Pot Violations Now Outstrip Those for Alcohol

The suspension of four Lincoln High School students Tuesday for breaking rules on controlled substances continues a pattern showing more violations for marijuana than alcohol.

Of the 23 alcohol and drug arrests involving Sioux Falls public schoolchildren this fall, 21 have related to possessing marijuana or paraphernalia.

"There's been a shift. It was more alcohol. Now more kids use marijuana," said Bill Smith, the school district's director of instructional support services. "It's easier to get than it used to be, and it's easier to conceal."

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I've served as South Dakota Elks' Drug Awareness chairman for 25 years. It's been my responsibility to make Elks lodges and communities more aware of the dangers involved in using illegal drugs. I'm against any kind of legalization of marijuana. I've seen how devastating the use of this drug can be.

Should marijuana be made legal for medicinal use? I could write a considerable amount on why this is a bad idea.

In the states that have such laws, five plants have been allowed to be grown in the homes of those who've received a prescription. One marijuana plant produces approximately one pound of useable marijuana, which equals approximately 1,176 marijuana cigarettes.

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I'd like to thank the Press and Dakotan for its editorial in support of Initiated Measure 4 (Oct. 11). I want to clarify a couple of points which may cause confusion.

First, many national medical and public health groups support medical marijuana. But these organizations generally don't take positions on individual state ballot measures, and haven't specifically stated a position on Measure 4.

Second, federal law prevents South Dakota from authorizing distribution through pharmacies. Measure 4 adopts the same strict controls used in other states: Patients must be seriously ill, have a physician certification and register with the state. They're then permitted to grow a small amount of marijuana or to designate a caregiver to grow it for them if they are unable to. The maximum permitted is six plants -- a minimal amount, producing less usable medicine than the U.S. government currently provides to the five patients now receiving government-grown medical marijuana each month in a program now closed to new patients.

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Next month, South Dakota voters have an opportunity to embrace what might be considered an act of compassion by passing Initiated Measure 4, which would provide certain seriously ill individuals with access to marijuana for medical purposes.

The motivation behind the law is not marijuana, but such things as cancer, AIDS, glaucoma, Crohn's disease, multiple sclerosis or other maladies -- and, in some cases, the treatment thereof -- that can seriously debilitate individuals.

Reports by the American Public Health Association and the Institute of Medicine, which is part of the National Academy of Sciences, indicate that the use of marijuana by some severely ill patients may relieve such symptoms as nausea and vomiting, and generally give some of these people some semblance of a normal life again.

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Banker Hopes To Help Others Get Off Drugs

Kristi Metzger had it all: a job she loved as a bank vice president, loving family and friends, community activities, a house to shelter her at the end of a productive day.

And a secret.

Metzger was addicted to the prescription pain reliever Vicodin.

After 10 surgeries in 15 years in a fruitless effort to relieve chronic pain caused by endometriosis, Metzger had almost quadrupled the maximum number of Vicodin she was allowed. And to keep her secret, she had turned into a liar.

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NORTHERN HILLS - After seeing the Safe and Drug Free Schools program continue to lose funding over the years, the state has stepped up and is granting both Lead-Deadwood and Spearfish school districts with $100,000 to use toward community-based programs. Students throughout both communities, along with their younger siblings, will benefit because of this additional funding.

School Project Leader Jackie Rans, told school board members this month that it's taken about four years of hard work on behalf of the district and the state to make this happen, but prevention activities will be a lot easier to finance because of this grant.

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PIERRE -- A circuit judge told South Dakota officials Friday to make substantial changes in the language that will appear on the November ballot to explain a proposal that would legalize the use of marijuana for medical purposes.

Voters in November will decide whether to legalize marijuana for people who have certain medical conditions such as cancer, AIDS or chronic pain. The ballot explanation by Attorney General Larry Long will guide voters.

In a ruling issued Friday, Circuit Judge Max Gors of Pierre gave Long the option of either using a new explanation written by the judge or making substantial changes to the explanation Long had written.

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Chairman: More Police Needed To Fight Drugs

PIERRE - The Crow Creek Sioux Tribe is $30 million in the hole and desperately in need of a cash infusion to beef up its anemic police force in the face of a surge in drug-related crime, Chairman Lester Thompson Jr. says.

Thompson, who took office in May, recently issued a report to tribal members outlining the severity of the tribe's financial woes. It included notice that the tribe owes the Internal Revenue Service almost $4 million in unpaid taxes and penalty fees.

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The Aberdeen school board wants to know if parents are interested in starting random testing of Central High School students for drugs in their bodies.

The tests would be random only among those students whose parents have enrolled their kids in the program. It would also allow for discretionary testing whereby parents would call Central and request that their child be tested on a particular day.

The Sioux Falls school district has participated in these programs of Prairie View Prevention Services of Sioux Falls for a number of years, said Darcy Jensen of Prairie View. About a third of Sioux Falls high school students are part of the random/discretionary testing, she said.

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Proposals Include Medical Marijuana Use, Airplane Limits

PIERRE - South Dakota voters this fall will decide the fate of ballot measures that seek to boost the tax on cigarettes, allow marijuana for medical purposes, prohibit an early starting date for school and limit the use of state airplanes, a state official announced Thursday.

Secretary of State Chris Nelson had announced in May that sufficient petition signatures had been filed to put the tobacco tax and school starting date measures on the November ballot.

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A federal appeals court said Thursday that authorities were correct to confiscate industrial hemp grown on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

The crop comes from the same plant as marijuana but doesn't contain the chemical that's responsible for the drug's high.

Members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe maintained that federal drug laws don't apply to industrial hemp and that tribal sovereignty gives them a right to harvest the plants. The tribal council legalized industrial hemp in 1998, but federal agents destroyed three consecutive years of crops grown by the White Plume family.

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Federal Court Rules Against Indians Who Planted Crops

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - An American Indian treaty and United States law do not allow for the cultivation of industrial hemp on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.

Alex White Plume, vice president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, and members of his family planted hemp on their property, but it was cut down and confiscated by federal agents.

Industrial hemp is related to marijuana and is used to make rope and other products. It has only a trace of the drug in marijuana, but it is illegal to grow hemp in the United States.

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SIOUX FALLS -- An American Indian treaty and United States law do not allow for the cultivation of industrial hemp on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.

Alex White Plume, who is vice president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, and members of his family planted hemp on their property but it was cut down and confiscated by federal agents.

Industrial hemp,which is related to marijuana, is used to make rope and other products.

It has only a trace of the drug in marijuana, but it is illegal to grow hemp in the United States.

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SIOUX FALLS, S.D. -- An American Indian treaty and United States law do not allow for the cultivation of industrial hemp on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.

Alex White Plume, vice president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, and members of his family planted hemp on their property but it was cut down and confiscated by federal agents. Industrial hemp is related to marijuana and is used to make rope and other products. It has only a trace of the drug in marijuana, but it is illegal to grow hemp in the United States.

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PIERRE -- The South Dakota Supreme Court was asked Tuesday to throw out the convictions of a woman who was caught near Sioux Falls last year with 53 pounds of marijuana in her car.

Sioux Falls lawyer Mike Butler said the evidence should have been suppressed because a state Highway Patrol dog did not give any clear signal that it had detected the odor of marijuana in the car driven by Tam Thi Thu Nguyen, 23, of Renton, Wash. The search was illegal because the trooper had no probable cause to search the car, he said.

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SIOUX FALLS - A South Dakota student is among the plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union that challenges a provision of federal law that denies financial aid to convicted drug offenders.

In its class-action lawsuit, the ACLU says the provision is unconstitutional because it punishes people twice for the same crime and creates a class of people deemed unworthy of receiving federal financial aid for college without a good reason.

About 200,000 people nationwide have been denied financial aid since the provision went into effect in 2000, Adam Wolf, a lawyer for the ACLU, said.

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SIOUX FALLS (AP) -- A South Dakota student is among the plaintiffs in a lawsuit planned by the American Civil Liberties Union that challenges a provision of federal law that denies financial aid to convicted drug offenders.

In its class-action lawsuit, the ACLU says the provision is unconstitutional because it punishes people twice for the same crime and creates a class of people deemed unworthy of receiving federal financial aid for college without a good reason.

"While any non-drug offender, from a murderer to a shoplifter, can receive financial aid, an individual who is caught with any amount of a controlled substance, including a small amount of marijuana, is automatically denied aid by the federal government," the complaint states.

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