Pubdate: Fri, 14 Jul 2000
Source: Tucson Citizen (AZ)
Copyright: 2000 Tucson Citizen
Contact:  http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/
Author: Tom Collins, Citizen Phoenix Bureau

POT MEASURE CALLED AID TO DRUG DEALERS

Proposition 201 could protect them from prosecution, claims the Legislative
Council, which analyzed the ballot measure.

PHOENIX- Arizona lawmakers want voters to know that the latest ballot
initiative on medical marijuana could end up making drug dealers immune from
prosecution.

But the chairman of the Drug Medicalization, Prevention and Control Act of
2000 campaign says lawmakers may be creating the loopholes in their
explanation of the initiative, adopted Wednesday.

Lawmakers on the Legislative Council charged with writing an analysis of
ballot measures for a state-produced publicity pamphlet, adopted an
explanation of Proposition 201 that says a person with a doctor's
recommendation for marijuana use would be exempt from a number of state drug
offenses up to selling drugs to kids.

The explanation was done at the request of law enforcement officials.

But the initiative's chairman, lawyer Michael Walt, said that loophole was
never intended and urged the council to adopt an explanation clarifying the
initiative.

By adopting its own explanation, Walt told lawmakers it is the council
itself that has opened the door to freeing drug dealers.

Assuming the initiative passes, and in the absence of a clear law, judges
would look to the analysis for the intent of the law, he said.

"We certainly didn't intend to have meth or other drugs sold or given away
to children," Walt said.

But that argument didn't wash with lawmakers, who say it was the
initiative-writers' job to craft their proposal.

"With an initiative, the only way you can correct it is with another
initiative," said Rep. Herschella Horton, D-Tucson.  "Putting it in the
analysis doesn't make it part of the initiative."

Contention over the initiative's language led the group The People Have
Spoken, sponsor of medical marijuana measures in 1996 and '98 to surrender
the effort to Walt's group, Plants are Medicine.

Jeny Landau, a lobbyist with the Maricopa County Attorney's Office who
headed the law enforcement drive, said police want the measure to fail but
also want to make sure voters know its implications.

"It's a bad initiative," Landau said.

Walt said he's convinced the measure will pass. Medical marijuana measures
have a strong record in Arizona - the 1996 and '98 measures passed.
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