Source: Los Angeles Times (CA) Contact: http://www.latimes.com/ Pubdate: Fri, 31 Jul 1998 Author: Tom Banse, Reuters MARIJUANA USE FOR MEDICINE ON WASHINGTON STATE BALLOT OLYMPIA, Wash.--A citizens initiative to legalize the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes will appear on the statewide ballot in November, Washington state officials say. State election officials said they had certified 198,378 signatures as valid, about 19,000 more than the required number needed to place the proposal before the voters Washington joins Oregon and Alaska as the three states that will put the question of medicinal marijuana use before the public as a ballot initiative this fall. Similar proposals are pending in Colorado and Nevada. Voters in California and Arizona have approved measures in recent years to legalize medicinal use of marijuana, but legal challenges and other controversies in both states have prevented full implementation. "I'm looking forward to a good campaign," said Washington state initiative sponsor Dr. Robert Killian. "There'll be a lot more media attention probably nationally because of this. And I'm ready for it." The Washington state proposition permits patients suffering from terminal or debilitating illnesses -- such as cancer, multiple sclerosis, or AIDS -- to get a doctor's authorization to smoke marijuana. Patients would have to come up with the drug on their own after receiving authorization. Killian said most patients would probably grow the plant themselves. Non-medical use of marijuana would still be prohibited. The medical marijuana legalization campaign in the Pacific Northwest has been bankrolled almost entirely by three multimillionaires. New York financier George Soros, Progressive Insurance CEO Peter Lewis of Cleveland, and Phoenix businessman John Sperling each donated $125,000 to the Washington state ballot campaign and gave smaller amounts to the Oregon effort. Last November, Washington state voters soundly rejected a broader drug reform initiative bankrolled by the same three men and run by Killian. That effort sought to ease jail sentences for low-level drug crimes and legalize medical use of a broad range of prohibited drugs, including heroin. Killian predicted better chances for passage this year now that the ballot measure has been narrowed to the concept he claimed has the widest popular support: allowing people suffering from intractable pain to use marijuana. Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited. - --- Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)