You would think, just by seeing his pickup truck, that Bill Smits would favor the ballot initiative in the upcoming election that would legalize cannabis possession in Colorado.

His pickup, which has the professionally-painted sign, "CANCER SUCKS, cannabis saved my life!" in his back window, obviously draws attention as he drives around Greeley. But Smits' sign isn't about legalization.  It's about medicinal cannabis.

As a teen, Smits had a cancerous tumor on his brain stem, and he had to undergo almost constant chemotherapy, drugs, radiation and surgeries. Because of the chemo, he was nauseous most of the time. "I lost 84 pounds in one month," says Smits, who is now 22 and cancer-free. "Everything I ate, I threw up."

He tried Marinol, a drug that has some of the chemicals of cannabis, but it didn't work. Then he got some cannabis from friends in Boulder and it stopped the nausea. Smits was able to keep food down, and he began to get well. If you ask him how he survived cancer, he'll give you a one-word answer: "Weed."

But because he still considers marijuana dangerous for some people, he is undecided on a ballot initiative that would make the weed legal in Colorado. "I think it's important for some people - those seriously ill - to have cannabis if they need it. But it shouldn't be abused, either," Smits said. Smits said he no longer uses cannabis because he was afraid of becoming addicted. He tapered off after the cancer was in remission. "But I'm still not sure how I'll vote on the question," Smits said.

Two people are convinced of their positions on the question, Weld County Sheriff John Cooke and the man who led the election to get the marijuana legalized in Denver, Mason Tvert. Here is a summary of their arguments:

Cooke:
* "There's a lot of reasons to be opposed to marijuana. The initiative is a slippery slope -- first medical use, then legalization of marijuana, and eventually legalization of all drugs."

* "Alaska legalized marijuana for a time, and because of all the problems it presented, they voted to make it illegal again."

* The way we're going, we will eventually make cigarette smoke illegal and marijuana smoke legal."

* "We know it's a gateway drug -- it starts young people on the path to using more and more dangerous drugs."

Tvert:
* "Government tests and medical labs have shown over and over that marijuana is less harmful than alcohol."

* "Forty-seven percent of America's population have smoked marijuana and they had to get it illegally."

* "The Denver election showed that the people don't want marijuana to be illegal anymore."

* "The only way it's a 'gateway drug' is when the police arrest people for minor possession, and that starts them through the gate into being criminals."

Cooke and Tvert agree that if the initiative passes, cannabis will continue to be a federal crime. And, both agree that no federal agent will bother to arrest anyone with a small amount of the weed.

Amendment 44 would legalize the possession of up to 1 ounce of cannabis for adults 21 years of age or older. Still illegal would be:

-Possession of cannabis under 21.
-Possession of more than an ounce.
-Transfer to person under 21 years old.
-Growing and/or selling marijuana.
-Open or public display of marijuana.
-Driving under the influence of marijuana.

Story by:  Mike Peters
Columnist, Greeley Tribune, October 7th, 2006 http://www.greeleytrib.com/article/20061007/NEWS/110070096