Pubdate: Fri, 23 Sep 2005
Source: East Valley Tribune (AZ)
Copyright: 2005 East Valley Tribune.
Contact:  http://www.eastvalleytribune.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2708
Author: Jennifer Ryan, Tribune
Cited: Marijuana Policy Project http://www.mpp.org
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/sperling.htm (Sperling, John)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?168 (Lewis, Peter)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Marijuana+Policy+Project

LEGALIZED POT INITIATIVE BACKERS LIGHT UP DEBATE

Medical marijuana has not gone away in Arizona. Despite its last
defeat at the polls nearly three years ago, the medical marijuana
issue has returned.

And this time, the scope is bigger.

The Marijuana Policy Project, which calls itself the nation's largest
marijuana policy reform organization, is pushing to legalize marijuana
use for all adults in Arizona and six other states.

The goal is to put pot in the same category as alcohol, with the same
kind of taxes and regulation.

"It's about providing funding and providing organization," said Krissy
Oechslin, a spokeswoman for the nonprofit Marijuana Policy Project,
based in Washington, D.C. "We'd like to bring it off the street and
regulate it."

The effort, however, is in its infancy, and project officials
emphasize they have no master plan for the seven states they have
targeted: Arizona, Delaware, Idaho, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire and
Oregon.

Instead, the group is looking for local activists to build grass-roots
support for legalized marijuana. Their efforts would be funded by the
project's grant program.

A request for proposals has been issued in the seven states, where
grant applicants are asked to list "escalating tactics that would lead
to a change in state law in three to five years via the state
Legislature or the statewide ballot initiative process," according to
a job listing on the Internet.

Those tactics could include organizing demonstrations, lobbying state
lawmakers, building a coalition of supportive organizations and
generating favorable news coverage.

The effort would go much further than previous Arizona medical
marijuana initiatives, but it's not surprising, said Barnett Lotstein,
a special assistant in the Maricopa County Attorney's Office.

"The objective was, once you get people to think of drugs as medicine,
the next step is legalization," he said. "The ultimate goal of people
who propose the legalization of marijuana is the legalization of all
drugs."

Project officials, however, said their focus is only on marijuana. And
while the organization supports the legal use of marijuana for
medicinal purposes, the group is separate from the one that organized
Arizona's medical marijuana initiatives, said Bruce Mirken, a
spokesman for the project.

Both groups, however, share some of the same financial sources.
University of Phoenix founder John Sperling provided financial support
for medical marijuana campaigns in Arizona, and gave money to the
Marijuana Policy Project once in 2002, said Oechslin. Peter Lewis,
chairman of the Progressive Insurance Companies, has contributed money
to medial marijuana efforts in Arizona, and is funding the grants
program at the Marijuana Policy Project.

"There is probably a range of views out there . . . but we've been
pretty clear that we support taxing and regulating marijuana for
adults," Mirken said.

The project has targeted Arizona because of support residents have
shown for medical marijuana, said Oechslin. In 1996, 65 percent of
voters approved a ballot initiative that gave doctors authority to
prescribe marijuana to seriously ill patients.

Public support continued two years later, when voters defeated a
referendum sent to the ballot by state lawmakers, who wanted the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration to approve marijuana before Arizona
doctors could prescribe the drug.

But in 2002, voters rejected a ballot measure aimed at correcting
problems in the 1996 initiative. Doctors were afraid to write
prescriptions for marijuana because federal authorities threatened to
take away their prescribing authority, said Dr. Jeffrey Singer, a
Phoenix surgeon and a medical marijuana campaign activist.

Proposition 203 would have allowed doctors to write a recommendation
rather than a prescription, made possession of small amounts of pot
punishable by a fine and created a distribution system using the state
health department and the Arizona Department of Public Safety.

The measure was hurt by controversy over having law enforcement
distribute pot to sick people, said Singer. Since then, the group
behind the medical marijuana propositions has faded from view.

"At the moment, we're sort of on hold," said Singer. "We're waiting
for the right time."

The Marijuana Policy Project said the right time is now. The
organization is behind efforts in Nevada, where a proposition will be
on the November 2006 ballot that would tax and regulate marijuana, and
make possession of up to one ounce of the drug legal by state law.

By federal law, marijuana use remains illegal, which could impact any
success states have legalizing use of the drug, authorities say. In
June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the federal government could
prosecute people with marijuana, even if they have a doctor's
recommendation and are caught in a state that allows such possession.

Success on the state level will depend on the strength of grass-roots
efforts and the effectiveness of grant applicants from Arizona and
elsewhere, Oechslin said.

"It's sort of an open-ended offer," she said. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake