8A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, September 23, 2004 NEWS Initiative to legalize medical mari/uana in Ann Arbor MARIJUANA Continued from page 1A again. I went back to college, graduated magna cum laude and I've led a successful life since," says Ream, who was a kindergarten teacher for 33 years. Medical marijuana - which some research has shown to treat glaucoma, nausea and loss of appetite - is already legal in nine states, including California, Hawaii and Nevada. Most recently, in August, Detroit voters passed an initiative legalizing medical marijuana in the city. Ream has led the drive to legalize marijuana in Ann Arbor by collecting 7,000 petition signatures, about double the number necessary to put the initiative on the ballot. He paid voters $1 per signature, using $5,000 of his own money. Now, with limited funds left at his disposal, Ream is doing all he can with $4,000 provided by the Marijuana Policy Project - an organization which works to reduce criminal penalties for marijuana use -and another $1,000 of his own savings. Ream wants to run radio advertisements promoting the ini- tiative, but that plan depends on support from donors. Instead, he has decided to rely on newspaper articles and editorials to make his cause known. A public forum will also be held at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Ann Arbor on Oct. 24 at 12:45 p.m., on the medicinal values of marijuana. In addition to lack of funding, the initiative faces opposi- tion from Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who has made it clear that she does not approve of medical marijuana use. In a let- ter to the City Council, Granholm said it is still illegal to use, possess or sell marijuana under state and federal law. She said that even if the proposal passes and becomes a city law, state and federal law enforcers would still be able to arrest, charge and prosecute marijuana users, even if they were using prescribed marijuana. Johnston, director of an annual survey of teenage sub- stance abuse, cites the example of California, where a medi- cal marijuana initiative was passed but rarely implemented. "Federal authorities made it clear that physicians prescribing marijuana risked losing their licenses to prescribe all con- trolled substances, including all of the traditional psycho- therapeutic drugs," he said. Ream said he refuses to be deterred by Granholm's oppo- sition and remains convinced that more can be done to legal- ize marijuana for medical purposes. In a written response to Granholm, he said, "Ann Arbor voters don't like it when you tell them that their vote will be ignored." He mentioned Burlington, Vt., which legalized medical marijuana with an 83 percent majority, prompting the state to adopt the policy, and says he hopes a similar amendment will be approved here. "People here understand research and the truth. They are too smart to be manipulated by cultural wars," Ream added. Yet some people doubt that the initiative will have positive health benefits if passed. Kirk Brower, a psychiatry professor at the University. said, "I would vote against this initiative because the issue here is that they want to legalize marijuana joints. I don't think smoking a joint is the best delivery system because along with the active ingredient that has medicinal purposes, smokers also inhale tar and other cannabinoids whose effects have not been researched." While Brower believes marijuana does have medicinal values, he says drug approval should be left to the Food and Drug Administration and not legalized through a ballot. "The only reason I feel people would vote for this is to raise awareness about the effects of medical marijuana." Brower said. "However, I believe the proper channel of approval should be through the FDA, which will impose regulations and controls for the prescription of addictive medicines, such as morphine." ELECTION Continued from page 1A LSA senior Mary Tran, who is not related to Dan Tran, says this strident opposition toward Kerry is evident in her father. "My dad is voting for Bush because of Kerry's Viet- nam record and what he did in the past," she said. Citing Kerry's protests against the Vietnam War and his later attempts to normalize relations with Vietnam during 1995, Mary Tran said her father believes Kerry only aided what he sees as the brutal dictatorship govern- ing Vietnam today. Kerry's past does not merely reflect on Vietnam, but also his inability to lead the United States, said Dan Tran. "Kerry joined the Vietnam War and then he opposed it. That's his 'flip-flopping'," Dan Tran said, who is also president of the Vietnam Human Rights Project. "He then misled America about the Vietnam War, when he testified in court against U.S. soldiers," said Dan Tran, adding that the United States could have won the war. Most recently, Kerry blocked a bill that would have reduced U.S. aid to Vietnam in order to pressure the coun- try to end its human rights abuses. Kerry's opposition to the bill further deepened the divide between Vietnamese and his candidacy, Dan Tran added. Not all Vietnamese communities plan to vote against Kerry. Engineering freshman Quang Nguyen also said his Florida Vietnam community would probably vote for Kerry, believing that even with his Vietnam war record, Kerry is still the superior candidate. "I feel that he is the person who would most stand up for more immigration from Vietnam in America," he added. But the rationale behind most Vietnamese backing President Bush has not solely been weighed on Kerry's wartime record. In fact, support for the Republicans has its origins since Vietnam refugees immigrated to Ameri- ca during the Vietnam War. Andrew Lam, an NCM translator who helped conduct the poll, said a key reason for Vietnamese support of Bush is because many of them were born in Vietnam. "I think part of it is 80 percent of the population are immigrants from overseas. And many of them still remember the Vietnam War and still perceive a strong foreign policy as a way of keeping the world stable," he said. As most Vietnamese Americans were from South Viet- nam, Lam said many are anti-communists and believe the Republicans are extremely anti-communist. In turn, Lam added, it's expected for them to oppose Kerry because of his anti-war attitude during the Viet- nam War. "(Vietnamese immigrants) were basically the losers of the war. They believe that the war protesters in America caused the U.S. to withdraw and lose the war." In recent years, polls have also showed Vietnamese consistently voting conservative, Bendixen said. "They are very conservative in the war of Iraq. On issues like gay marriage they have been very strong (conservative voters). The issue of 9/11, they were very patriotic. So they tend to feel best represented by Republicans." Yet while Vietnamese have voted conservative in the past, the direction of elections to come is uncertain since the next generation of Vietnamese may begin to alter that path. Along with the overwhelming Vietnamese vote, the poll also indicated that among Asian Americans aged 18 to 39, 51 percent will vote for Kerry versus 27 percent for Bush. Lam said younger Vietnamese would most likely fol- low the same trend. "They grew up in the U.S. so their concerns are very different. The younger generation in this election is fac- ing a possible draft. They face the economy and the war. The issues are domestic," he said. But University students say the Vietnamese vote for both generations is not as clear-cut as the NCM poll shows. Business School senior Teresa Nguyen said her family is likely to vote for Kerry. "Looking at my parents' community, it is mainly blue collar working class, rather than anything like the Repub- licans. So they have voted for Democrats in the past. I think they are also more concerned about current events," she said. As for Vietnamese students, many have yet to decide, feeling they have not looked into the election enough or they are unsatisfied with both candidates. Pharmacy senior Mandee Nguyen said, "I've heard stories on both sides. I'm not even sure if I want to vote, because I'm not happy with either candidate." 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