WALK'S AIM IS TO LEGALIZE USE OF MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Libertarian Group Advocates Pot As Pain Reliever

SEASIDE HEIGHTS - A group of Libertarian Party members plans to set
out today on a "Walk Across New Jersey" with a message for lawmakers:
Legalize medical marijuana.

Leading the walk will be 55-year-old Jim Miller of Toms River, the
party's candidate for state Senate from the 10th District. His wife
Cheryl, a medical marijuana advocate, died June 7, 2003, after
spending the last decade of her life telling people how marijuana
relieved her multiple sclerosis spasticity and pain. Miller will be
pushing his wife's wheelchair.

The group will start by holding its state meeting at 10 a.m. today at
Captain Hooks at 1320 Boulevard and head out from there at noon.
Participants will walk over the Route 37 bridge, break for lunch at
the Pier One restaurant on Route 37, and then start the trek toward
Trenton, which they plan to reach Tuesday.

Although Miller expects about 50 to 80 people, including many of the
party's 24 candidates for the November election, to walk the first
couple of miles, only four or five will accompany him all the way
across the state, with two support vehicles following, he said.

They will walk along Route 37 to Route 9 to Freehold and then along
Route 33 to Trenton. They plan to reach the steps of the statehouse
by noon Tuesday and then deliver their petition to election
officials, according to Lou Jasikoff, chairman of the party. They
want to place on the November ballot a question of whether medical
marijuana should be legalized.

Lawmakers are working on two medical marijuana bills, one in the
state Senate and another in the Assembly, Miller said. Informational
hearings on the Senate bill were held last June, and the legislation
is stalled.

Although there is no organized campaign to make marijuana legal,
there is public support for it, Miller said. A poll by the Drug
Policy Alliance showed 86 percent of people surveyed supported
legalizing marijuana for medical use and 11 percent opposed
legalizing it, he said.

Miller said he decided to run for state Senate after the party agreed
to join the push to legalize marijuana.

Libertarian Party candidates are "well-educated, intelligent and
young and will bring a fresh face to New Jersey," Jasikoff said.

"We're very mainstream," he said. Democratic and Republican lawmakers
"represent their parties and not the people," he said. "They have
sold their souls to special interest groups."

Libertarians, on the other hand, are "regular working guys" who don't
take money from such groups, he said. "We work 40-50 hours a week,
and we're trying to find the energy and resources to make a difference."