Drug czar rips Amendment 44

Walters at South to stress intervention, give state $15 million

David Montero, Rocky Mountain News

Published October 12, 2006 at midnight

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The nation's drug czar slammed a thick ream of paper on the podium and declared it contained study after study showing marijuana leads to mental illness and other health problems.

Emily Bettinger wasn't buying it.

"For all I know, that was a bunch of doodling he did on the plane ride out here," she said. "He didn't even show us anything."

The 17-year-old sighed.

Behind her, a group of South High students complained John Walters, Office of National Drug Control Policy director, never seemed to be speaking directly to them during his 20-minute talk at the school.

But he was.

Walters, armed with a $15 million gift from the federal government to be doled out over five years, said Wednesday the money would be used to set up school-based health care systems to identify students battling drug abuse.

Denver would get the first chunk of it - $2.8 million. Other money would be spread across the state.

"We hope to change the course of addiction in this region," Walters said. "The emphasis is on early intervention."

The emphasis was also on Amendment 44, the Nov. 7 ballot measure seeking to decriminalize pot possession of an ounce or less among those 21 and older.

Mason Tvert, campaign manager for Amendment 44, knew Walters was arriving Wednesday and paid $4,900 to put up a billboard at West Harvard Avenue and Broadway featuring a picture of Walters saying marijuana use is the "safest thing in the world."

Well, actually, not the drug czar's words, though they are part of an ad campaign being run out of his office called "Pete's Couch." The video shows a guy sitting on a couch who claims life will pass you by if you smoke weed and don't go out into the real world and take risks like ice skating or playing basketball. The phrase "safest thing in the world" is actually a perjorative reference to pot.

Walters said the advertisement was designed to appeal to youth's sense of adventure. He said marijuana dulls that sense. He also said the dangers of marijuana are "a blind spot" in society.

"Substance abuse doesn't make any state, any community, any family, any young person's life better," Walters said. "It makes it worse and puts them at risk and it shatters too many families. We're about putting them back together."

The drug czar also ripped Amendment 44 for taking money from out-of-state billionaires conducting "a social experiment" on kids in Colorado.

"They have enough money to play with other people's lives," Walters said.

But Tvert urged people to look at the financial reports of his group filed with the Colorado Secretary of State, which show no contributions from billionaires George Soros or Peter Lewis, whose politics make them targets of conservatives. Tvert, in fact, said he has written to Soros asking for a sworn affidavit saying the campaign "hasn't taken one cent" from the billionaire.

"We have a two-person staff for the entire state," Tvert said. "For them to say we're a national group, well they're coming out here and lying through their teeth."

Walters spent the morning in Colorado Springs with the mayor, Lionel Rivera, and ripped the ballot measure there, too. Rivera called Amendment 44 a "terrible public health policy."

monterod@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5236

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