U.S. deputy drug czar speaks against legalizing marijuana in Michigan

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Deborah Brink of Kentwood Michigan has a different view of legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes than those who oppose it.

Brink became violently ill in 1979 while undergoing chemotherapy for leukemia. For four hours a day she threw up four times an hour, five days a week.

Nothing she tried stopped the nausea until she tried marijuana.

Brink said, "I did not throw up at all. You can't say for sure, but there's a possibility it saved my life."

During a news conference Monday, U.S. Deputy Drug Czar Scott Burns called Proposal 1 dangerous. Burns said, ["Proposal 1 is bad for Michigan and it is bad for America. This issue is about dope, not about medicine."

According to Burns wealthy individuals that do not live in Michigan are pushing the proposal as they have backed similar proposals in other states.

Burns added, "They are funded by millions of dollars from millionaires who live in Washington, D.C. to hire people to come to Michigan to try and con voters from the state to pass it."

Burns and Michigan Court of Appeals Judge Bill Schuette maintain if passed it would open the door to the "pot shops" and and smoking clubs that are common in California. Marijuana was legalized there for medical use in 1996.

Also at the news conference was a group of law enforcement officials, which included Kent County Sheriff Larry Stelma.

Schuette said, "This proposed statute, it's a doozy."

If the measure passes under Michigan law doctors will be allowed to recommend marijuana for patients with cancer, glaucoma, HIV, AIDS and other conditions the state agrees are covered under the law.

The patients would need to register with the state and could legally buy, grow and use small amounts of marijuana to relieve pain, nausea, appetite loss and other symptoms.

There are similar medical-marijuana laws in a dozen states. They have been enacted mainly by voters.

If the measure becomes law it would remove state penalties for those who are registered to use marijuana. It will not create legal dispensaries or would it affect the federal ban on marijuana.

Those who back Proposal 1 say the opponents are twisting the truth to frighten people.

The sponsor of the ballot initiative, Michigan Coalition for Compassionate Care, spokeswoman Dianne Byrum said, "The opposition is using scare tactics out of desperation, which does not diminish the fact that medical marijuana can safely and effectively relieve the pain and suffering of seriously ill patients. They are just throwing things up in the air and hoping something will stick."

Byrum said Michigan, will not allow pot shops like California offers.

She said, "This law is nothing like California."

Retired physician George Wagner from Manistee said his wife, Beverly, obtained relief from marijuana in 2007 as she was fighting ovarian cancer. She died in July 2007.

Wagner said, "She experienced nausea, vomiting and tried "all the available" legal medications.

After two breaths of marijuana smoke, her symptoms disappeared. It was as dramatic relief of a symptom that I've seen after 30 years of practicing medicine.

It's just outrageous that such an effective medication cannot be available legally."

The initiative can be found here.