White House drug czar John Walters slammed a thick ream of paper on a high school podium in Denver yesterday and declared it contained study after study showing marijuana leads to mental illness and other health problems, says the Rocky Mountain News. Emily Bettinger, 17, said, “For all I know, that was a bunch of doodling he did on the plane ride out here. He didn’t even show us anything.”
Walters, armed with a $15 million gift from the federal government to be doled out over five years, said the money would be used to set up school-based health care systems to identify students battling drug abuse. Denver would get $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.” Walters opposed Amendment 44, a Nov. 7 ballot measure seeking to decriminalize pot possession of an ounce or less among those 21 and older, for taking money from out-of-state billionaires conducting “a social experiment” on kids in Colorado.
Link: http://www.insidedenver.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5059068,00.html