MEDICAL MARIJUANA ADVOCATES FRUSTRATED

AUGUSTA - Petitions bearing about 3,200 signatures reached Portland City
Hall, and a group trying to legalize medicinal use of marijuana was about
2,400 signatures short for a Feb. 2 deadline to get the question on the
November ballot.

A Kennebec County Superior Court judge heard the case Friday against the
city and the secretary of state, but said it could be late next week before
he makes a decision in this "somewhat novel and difficult issue."

Gary Wood, the Portland city attorney, left the hearing Friday saying,
"Something doesn't work here - something doesn't feel right."

The city, the secretary of state, and Mainers for Medical Rights all agreed
that Portland city employees had not certified petitions that they should
have certified by their deadline. They all agreed that the delay
disqualified Mainers for Medical Rights from getting their petitions with
the required 51,131 signatures into the secretary of state's office by the
deadline for the November 1998 ballot. But they couldn't agree on what to
do about it.

Wood said, "People feel very badly" that the petitions weren't certified by
the deadline. He said city employees who would have done it already were
working overtime to prepare for the special election Feb. 10. "We would
like to see this get on the ballot next November," he said.

Phyllis Gardiner, the assistant attorney general who was representing the
secretary of state said, "We have sympathy with the petitioners' situation.
There is no excuse for the city of Portland's refusal to act." But, she
went on to say, there is nothing in the law that allows them to waive
deadlines and fix everything up.

William Knowles, the attorney for Mainers for Medical Rights, spoke
forcefully and emotionally about fundamental constitutional rights such as
freedom of speech and political association having been denied. He asked
that the deadlines be waived.

But Judge Donald Alexander questioned the use of the U.S. Constitution in
the arguments, since it is the Maine Constitution which gives residents the
right to initiate legislation. He asked for more recent cases - those cited
were from 1915 and 1917 - and said he would have to do more research.
Gardiner said they had had less than 24 hours to prepare for the case,
which had to be heard quickly because the November ballots will be printed
soon.

The petitions, if certified, would still be valid for the November 1999
election, so Gardiner said the question would not be kept off the ballot,
but it might be delayed.

Craig Brown, a political consultant working for Mainers for Medical Rights,
said, "We've been frustrated by the process for weeks now. We basically
filed suit only because we were told that people were in agreement that we
had played by the rules and met all the deadlines and there should be a
remedy for something like this. But in current Maine law nobody knew how to
deal with it.

"I agree with our lawyer that having to deny the patients and the voters
who signed the petition wanting a debate and a vote on the issue in 1998 to
have to wait a whole year because of a bureaucratic snafu is just unfair.
We know patients who have either glaucoma or HIV or are undergoing
chemotherapy who live in fear every day," he said.

Michael Lindey, a veterinarian who used marijuana when he was having
chemotherapy, said, "They argued all kinds of things, the lawyers did. ...
I saw it quite simply. ... I saw it, hoping because the municipality was
delinquent, that we wouldn't be penalized. Well, we were. ... I thought
he'd say, 'Let 'em finish, and we'll give 'em an extension."'

Wood said, "I think the judge signaled that what he's heard so far isn't
enough to grant relief." He said the arguments make a lot of sense but
legally, they needed stronger grounds. Meanwhile, Portland city officials
will be working through the weekend to certify the petitions and will be
done by 4 p.m. Wednesday at the latest, he said. Wood said 30 other towns
also failed to finish their petitions but that there were too few
signatures for it to be an issue.

Lindey was philosophical as he waits for the decision next week. "The
signatures are still valid, so all the expense and effort wasn't wasted.
You have to accept what comes. ... As far as depriving people of the right
to use marijuana, the fact is they're using it now; nobody's being
prosecuted who has cancer - that's the reality."