Source: Miami Herald Contact: Wednesday, September 3, 1997 A campaign to legalize pot for medical use By TOM FIEDLER Herald Political Editor Florida physicians would be allowed to prescribe marijuana in treating such ailments as cancer, AIDS or glaucoma if a constitutional amendment campaign opening today succeeds in getting on the 1998 ballot and winning voter approval. Floridians for Medical Rights are expected to announce a statewide petition drive at a news conference this morning at the Broward County Sheriff's Office in Fort Lauderdale. The group claims backing from a variety of mainstream medical and political groups, including the Florida Medical Association, the Governor's Red Ribbon Commission on AIDS, the Dade County Medical Association, the Libertarian Party of Florida and the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, among others. The amendment would allow physicians to use marijuana in the treatment of cancer, HIV, AIDS, anorexia, glaucoma, arthritis, chronic pain, spasticity, migraine headaches or ``other specified medical condition or illness.'' The coalition will have to gather at least 435,000 signatures from registered voters to win a spot on next year's ballot. If approved by voters, the ``Freedom to use Medicinal Marijuana'' amendment would be added to the state constitution's Bill of Rights. ``Our goal is to remove the threat of criminal prosecution from people who are suffering from various afflictions,'' said Toni Leeman, the initiative campaign's coordinator. ``The human side is being lost in the war on drugs.'' Leeman, a paralegal for the ACLU, became interested in the medical benefits of marijuana when a friend undergoing chemotherapy treatments for cancer suffered severe weight loss. The friend's doctor urged the patient to obtain marijuana illegally as a way of regaining her appetite and tolerating the chemotherapy. She said numerous medical studies have documented similarly beneficial effects of marijuana for people with AIDS, who also have difficulty holding on to their strength during treatment. A Harvard Medical School survey found that 44 percent of oncologists had recommended marijuana to patients undergoing chemotherapy, she said. And the federal government currently allows eight Americans, including Hollywood resident Elvy Musikka, to legally obtain and use marijuana as treatment for glaucoma, a debilitating eye disease. Musikka will be involved in the initiative campaign, Leeman said, along with others who have illegally used marijuana on the advice of doctors. Miami Beach physician Mark LaPorta, treasurer of the Dade County Medical Association, will be a cochairman of the campaign. Beginning next week, Musikka and other volunteers will start a yearlong, countybycounty swing to build interest in the initiative and to collect signatures to get on the ballot. ``I'm confident that we'll be able to get the signatures because there has already been so much interest in this,'' Leeman said. ``But what we want to do more than get petitions is to educate people.'' The amendment is at least as restrictive as similar measures that won the approval of voters in Arizona and California last fall. Leeman said it was drawn to ensure that the marijuana could only be used under the direct care of a physician, whose license could be revoked if the prescription authority was abused. Nevertheless, at least one North Florida sheriff signaled his opposition to both the amendment and the appearance of petition gatherers. Sheriff Frank McKeithen of Gulf County, southwest of Tallahassee, warned that he was ``fundamentally opposed to the legalization of marijuana for medical use.'' ``The potential for criminal abuse far outweighs the dubious evidence of medical benefit,'' he wrote in a letter to the county's Board of Commissioners alerting them to the petition drive. But the issue has won widespread support among American voters despite such warnings. In Arizona and California, medical marijuana laws won overwhelmingly in referendums last year and nationwide surveys show about four in five voters favor such legalization.