Pubdate: Wed, 22 Sep 1999
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 1999 The Denver Post
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Author: Mike Soraghan, Denver Post Capitol Bureau

MEDICAL-POT BILL BACK ON BALLOT

Sept. 22 - Voters in 2000 will be asked again whether they think the
medicinal use of marijuana should be legalized. Only this time, their votes
will count.

Secretary of State Donetta Davidson has found that organizers of a petition
drive did obtain enough signatures last year for the measure to be put on
the ballot.

"We're extremely pleased people suffering from glaucoma, cancer, AIDS and
other illnesses will finally have an additional treatment option,'' said
Luther Symons, spokesman for organizers of the drive, Coloradans for Medical
Rights. "We're extremely confident that voters will pass this measure in
November 2000.''

Former Secretary of State Vikki Buckley, who died in July, had blocked the
measure in 1998. She said the proponents, Coloradans for Medical Rights, had
not gathered the required 54,242 signatures.

Because the legal wrangling lasted into the final days before the election,
the "medicinal marijuana'' question was printed on last November's ballot,
but the results were not tallied.

Since then, however, the group went back through the pile of signatures that
Buckley threw out. Symons said they found that workers, when entering names
and addresses had made errors, such as dropping the direction in a street
name, such as South Broadway or East Colfax.

The Secretary of State's office and organizers of the petition drive now
agree that organizers garnered 253 more signatures than were actually needed
to get the measure on the ballot.

The remedy is to put it on the 2000 ballot, said Maurice Knaizer of the
Colorado Attorney General's office. Knaizer - who represents the Secretary
of State's office - said, "It will be on the ballot in 2000.''

The maneuver is not without precedent. A measure to bring casino gambling to
Trinidad was ruled out in 1994 and put back on the ballot in 1996.

Both sides have agreed to a proposed order putting the measure back on the
ballot but have been waiting for a final order from Denver District Court.

Symons said the group's exit polling in the 1998 election showed 58 percent
supported the measure.

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