Held to answer

If politics makes for strange bedfellows, Ellen Rosenblum’s husband might be wondering who she’s curling up with, now that she’s running for Oregon Attorney General.

Or perhaps Richard Meeker doesn’t care. As publisher of Willamette Week newspaper he’ll gladly take money from advertisers selling the hottest girls (“Give in to your wildest fantasies!”) or pushing “medical” marijuana (“Fast/Easy/Affordable”).

Still, it’s a curious sight: Rosenblum, a prim, retired state court judge, embraced by zealots pushing to legalize marijuana as if it were the most important issue facing Oregon – and Rosenblum going along with it.

Her opponent, Dwight Holton, has been demonized for a letter he sent marijuana collectives last summer when he was serving as U.S. Attorney. The letter, co-signed by 34 district attorneys, the head of the Oregon State Sheriffs’ Association and the head of the Oregon Chiefs of Police simply stated the obvious: The SALE of marijuana for any purpose violates federal and Oregon law. (Under Oregon law you can GIVE away marijuana.)

The letter’s signers weren’t out to take away “medical” marijuana from a dying cancer patient. Holton was acknowledging what a scam “medical” marijuana has become. Just about anybody can get a marijuana grower’s card (a boyfriend of one of my niece’s has a card – and not for humanitarian reasons; he sells dope to make money). And anybody can claim a need for “medical” marijuana. Just look at the back of Willamette Week.

Rosenblum sounds downright huffy in her ads attacking Holton: “(He) even called Oregon’s Medical Marijuana Act a ‘train wreck.’”

What would she call it – a smashing success?

Whatever your personal preference regarding marijuana, it is not good news that so many of us need drugs – legal or illegal. Yes, marijuana has medicinal value. So does heroin. Virtually all drugs have side effects, many of them cumulative and some permanent.

It’s hard to keep laughing at cult classics like “Reefer Madness,” “The Cocaine Fiends,” or “The Devil’s Harvest” – not because they missed the mark, but because drugs aren’t funny anymore. Too many Americans have substance abuse problems. Too many lives have been ruined or seriously derailed. Yes, like a train wreck.

When I worked as a court-appointed special advocate for children in foster care, most of the parents I dealt with were meth addicts. I always asked them about the first time they tried meth, since I couldn’t imagine ever wanting to take methamphetamine. It was usually a “friend” – often a boy friend in the case of young women – who introduced meth to them. Since they had already been using marijuana, they had no qualms about moving up to meth.

I used to think the warnings about marijuana being a “gateway” drug were exaggerated. After working with meth addicts, I realized I was wrong. Marijuana can be a starter drug – especially for younger people.

Of course, just because some people abuse a substance doesn’t mean everybody should be denied its use, but let’s not kid ourselves about the repercussions to all of us.

The people who complain about the prison-industry complex apparently haven’t noticed what a profitable business substance abuse treatment has become. As any substance abuse counselor will happily tell you, the key to successful treatment is finding the right program. You just have to keep trying – while the meter keeps running (especially if taxpayers are picking up the tab).

On her Website, Rosenblum claims that a better use of limited tax dollars is “providing more treatment options for people with drug and alcohol addiction.” How about avoiding drug and alcohol addiction in the first place? That would save even more money.

What does she have to propose in that regard? Nothing. She has let marijuana fanatics hijack the AG’s race, so they can focus on their single-minded obsession to legalize the drug of their choice – and put her in office.

“We’re targeting every public appearance that Mr. Holton is having from now on,” announced Bob Wolfe, one of the lead petitioners who’s working on a November ballot initiative to legalize marijuana.

Meanwhile, in the Voters’ Pamphlet, one of Rosenblum’s endorsements in her statement says, “As Oregon’s first woman Attorney General, we can count on her to go after domestic abusers and deadbeat parents.”

Considering how many of those abusers and deadbeat parents have substance abuse problems, she is being duplicitous when she panders for votes from marijuana backers. She’s as phony as her tight, frozen grin.

Among the Websites who are cheering her on: theweedblog.com; rollitup.org; cannabislover.com; stash.norml.org; marijuana.com and wheresmyfuckingmoney.com.

Visit them, and you’ll find an almost religious fervor in their fixation on marijuana as society’s cure-all. As disciples are fond of posting on The Oregonian’s Web site, “Legalize it and all problems go away.”

Cheech and Chong couldn’t have said it better.

Should we legalize marijuana? Sure, someday – when America no longer has a drug problem.

– Pamela Fitzsimmons

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