Pubdate: Thur, 05 Nov 1998 Source: The New York Times Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/ Copyright: 1998 The New York Times Company Author: James Brooke 5 STATES VOTE MEDICAL USE OF MARIJUANA DENVER -- In defiance of federal officials, and often state legislators, voters approved initiatives on Tuesday to legalize the medical use of marijuana in Alaska, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon and Washington state. And in Colorado and the District of Columbia, where conservatives managed to nullify medical marijuana initiatives at the last moment, surveys of voters leaving the polls on Tuesday indicated strong support for the measures. Drug policy analysts Wednesday said the votes, in which every marijuana initiative on a state ballot was approved, demonstrated the sea change in attitudes that started with the approval of ballot measures in Arizona and California in 1996. "I don't think any of these propositions would have passed five years ago," said Mark Kleiman, a professor of policy studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. "It is no longer possible to buffalo the American people by screaming drugs and having them run away." But the drives for the initiatives were bolstered by $5 million in advertising over the last year, estimated Ethan Nadelmann, director of the Lindesmith Center, a drug policy institute in New York. The campaign was financed by George Soros, the billionaire investor who financed the Lindesmith Center; Peter Lewis, a Cleveland insurance executive, and John Sperling, a Phoenix entrepreneur. The votes would give confidence to politicians who are afraid to publicly support allowing doctors to recommend marijuana to patients suffering from illnesses like glaucoma, cancer and multiple sclerosis, Nadelmann predicted. In Oregon and Arizona, the votes were direct slaps at state legislatures that had voted curbs on marijuana. In Oregon, the Legislature last year restored criminal penalties for marijuana possession. On Tuesday, Oregonians voted, 2-1, to make possession merely a violation carrying a fine, as it had been since 1973. They also voted, by a smaller margin, to approve the medical use of marijuana. In Arizona, the Legislature had approved bills last year that essentially gutted the marijuana referendum votes of 1996. On Tuesday, Arizona voters easily approved two initiatives that restored the 1996 language. "In two states, Arizona and Oregon, people overthrew the politicians on drugs," Sam Vagenas, leader of Arizona's medical-marijuana movement, said Wednesday. "This is the biggest grass-roots movement since term limits." Opposition to the medical-marijuana movement has come from big city police chiefs, Congress, and the White House's top drug policy official, Gen. Barry McCaffrey. In Senate testimony last summer, the general, who directs the Office of National Drug Control Policy, warned, in a veiled reference to Soros: "There is a carefully camouflaged, exorbitantly funded, well-heeled elitist group whose ultimate goal is to legalize drug use in the United States." Wednesday, the general's office emphasized that the state measures "in no way alter the status of marijuana under federal law." "We are concerned about the mixed message that children pick up on this," Jim McDonough, director of strategy for the White House drug control office, said Wednesday of the advertising campaigns to allow medical uses of marijuana. Noting that the number of marijuana users in the nation had dropped in half since 1980, to about 10 million today, he said that surveys indicated a recent increase among students. In the District of Columbia, Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., a conservative, inserted two weeks ago into the district's federal appropriation bill an amendment to bar the district from counting votes in Tuesday's medical-marijuana initiative. The American Civil Liberties Union is suing to overturn the ban. In Colorado, a medical-marijuana initiative was also on the ballot, but Vikki Buckley, the secretary of state and a Republican, said she would not count the votes because the initiative backers did not supply enough valid signatures to place the issue on the ballot. Backers are contesting her ruling in court.