| Kathy Plonka/Spokesman-Review |
| Anita Kronvall of the Kootenai County Substance Abuse Council doesn’t smoke cannabis, and she doesn’t want anybody else to use it, either — even medical marijuana patients. |
Expecting both a November 2012 ballot initiative to legalize medical marijuana in Idaho, and state legislation to do the same, reactionary elements in Coeur d’Alene are mobilizing to “educate” the public about what they claim are the “dangers” of cannabis legalization.
“Our whole goal is we want our people educated so we can put pressure on the legislators not to pass it,” said Anita Kronvall, director of the Kootenai County Substance Abuse Council, reports Alison Boggs of the Spokane Spokesman-Review. The council is supporting the Kootenai Alliance for Children and Families in hosting two mid-October anti-marijuana events.
The keynote speaker will be anti-pot wing nut Monte Stiles, a real asshole’s asshole who retired early from his job as assistant U.S. Attorney for Idaho — so that, you guessed it, he could spend full time battling the “Marijuana Menace.” Stiles, a Brigham Young University graduate who just can’t let go of the Drug War, may be living proof that marijuana really does make you crazy — if you oppose it.
| Idaho Statesman |
| Drug Warrior Monte Stiles: “There’s no such thing as smokable medicine.” |
The execrable Stiles will attempt to spread his ridiculous, outdated superstitions and irrational fears surrounding marijuana to police, public officials, drug education groups and others on October 13, then at a luncheon open to the public on October 14.
Stiles wasted 28 years as a state and federal prosecutor and supervised Idaho’s organized crime and drug enforcement task force (and we all know what a huge success that’s been).
After 28 years of failure in fighting drugs, now Stiles deems himself ready to broadcast his toxic, fact-free perspective on pot to the public.
According to the clueless Stiles, legalizing marijuana is “ridiculous,” and it creates a “circus” when it’s legalized at the state level but remains illegal at the federal level.
“There’s nothing medical about smoke,” Stiles claimed. “It’s ironic in America where we’ve been fighting cigarette addiction for 30 years. There’s no such thing as smokable medicine. To me that’s as ridiculous as saying chew this pile of gravel because there’s iron in it.”
Yeah… That’s a pretty good illustration of the minute level of mental activity feebly firing off somewhere within Stiles’s pitiable brain.
State Rep. Tom Trail (R-Moscow), a conservative who supports medical marijuana, disagrees. He points to Idahoans suffering from diseases including cancer and multiple sclerosis who he said would be helped by medical marijuana.
Cannabis is less addicting than opiates for pain control, according to Trail, and it doesn’t require additional medications to combat side effects. Wow, that’s refreshing — a conservative politician who actually knows the facts about cannabis!
Idaho citizens with severe chronic pain are already moving over the border to Oregon and Washington, where they can access cannabis legally, according to Trail.
“We have to ask ourselves this question,” Trail said. “Is this a humane way of treating our citizens who are suffering from extreme pain, or not?”
More and more Idaho voters appear to agree with him, Trail said, pointing to a recent Boise State University survey that found 74 percent of state residents agreeing to allow “terminally and seriously ill patients to use and purchase marijuana for medical purposes.”
Trail is sponsoring a bill along with state Rep. Roy Lacey (D-Pocatello) which would create state-registered “alternative treatment centers” that would grow and distribute marijuana to authorized patients. Cardholders could buy two ounces every 28 days; cannabis would only be available to those who are terminally or seriously ill.
Separately, a voter initiative is underway which needs to gather 47,432 signatures by April 30, 2012 to qualify for the ballot. It would allow patients to buy up to 2.5 ounces every two weeks, and would also let patients grow their own supply or have a caregiver grow for them. Each caregiver would be allowed to supply up to four patients.