GROUP SEEKING BALLOT ISSUE TO LEGALIZE POSSESSION OF POT

A group seeking an end to criminal penalties for the possession of up to 7
ounces of marijuana yesterday presented the Columbus city clerk with a
2-foot stack of petitions.

For a Better Ohio President Kenneth Schweickart said his group had gathered
10,179 signatures from people who want to put the issue on the November ballot.

"That's after we weeded out the bad ones," he said.

A receptionist in the clerk's office laughed out loud, and Schweickart
turned up a sheepish grin as he realized his unintentional pun.

It was a light moment, but Schweickart and his group take decriminalizing
the possession of misdemeanor amounts of marijuana seriously.

If at least 7,213 signatures -- 5 percent of city voters who cast ballots
in the last general election -- hold up to the scrutiny of the Franklin
County Board of Elections and pass legal muster with City Attorney Janet E.
Jackson's office, Columbus voters will get their say in November.

College students, Schweickart said, shouldn't lose financial aid if they
are arrested for marijuana; nor should people who use marijuana to
alleviate medical problems face arrest. And adults who smoke a joint at
home after work instead of drinking a martini shouldn't fear a knock at
their door, he said.

"It is more safe than alcohol or nicotine or even aspirin," Schweickart said.

He is careful to point out that For a Better Ohio doesn't want to legalize
marijuana. People who sell the drug still would face arrest, those who
possess more than 7 ounces -- enough to roll about 200 joints -- could face
felony prosecution, and people younger than 18 also would face arrest for
misdemeanor amounts.

If the issue makes the ballot, Schweickart likely will spend a lot of time
debating those points with people such as Paul H. Coleman, president of
Maryhaven, Columbus' oldest alcohol- and drug-treatment center. This
measure is a half-step toward For a Better Ohio's real goal, Coleman said.

"They want to make marijuana legal," Coleman said yesterday. "Should the
matter be certified for the ballot, I think the debate and the discussion
about that will be healthy. Voters will reject it, and they will reject it
for good reasons."

All drugs are dangerous, whether they kill on the first dose or cause
problems over a long period of time, Coleman said. Maryhaven already sees
enough problems with marijuana under the current laws, he said.

"I don't want to get into a debate on the relative evils of the cornucopia
of drugs that are available in our society."

But, he said, marijuana is not as harmless as Schweickart says.

In a 1999 study of emergency-room admissions by the Drug Abuse Warning
Network, marijuana accounted for more admissions than heroin, Coleman said.
Pot was third on the list, behind alcohol and cocaine.

The study, Coleman said, did not weight emergency-room visits by the actual
threat to the patient's life.

"In these cases," he said, "the patient himself or herself thinks they need
to go to the emergency room."

Schweickart, however, said that marijuana is not only safe, "It has great
therapeutic uses. There's a lot of people that already see it our way."