S.D. MEDICAL MARIJUANA PROPOSAL FORMING

Marijuana: Signatures Needed To Reach Ballot

PIERRE - A Hermosa man who supported an unsuccessful attempt to legalize
industrial hemp in 2002 said last week he is preparing a ballot initiative
to allow medical marijuana in South Dakota.

Robert Newland, who also ran for attorney general as a Libertarian
candidate in 2002, said Montana voters in November legalized marijuana for
medical uses.

"When I saw that Montana did it, I decided to start a campaign in South
Dakota," Newland said. "There is no question we can get the signatures in
fairly short order. The fact is, medical use has never failed on an
initiative."

A bill to legalize medical marijuana died 11-1 in a House committee during
the 2005 Legislature.

Newland can expect strong opposition from Attorney General Larry Long's
office if his proposal reaches the ballot. A spokesman for Long said the
office's position is contained in statements made at the House hearing by
Charles McGuigan, an assistant attorney general.

"We are in opposition to any plan to legalize marijuana in any form,
whether it is medical marijuana or industrial hemp or any other concoction
that would give credence to this substance," McGuigan said then. "Marijuana
is not scheduled as a controlled substance, but marijuana use and
possession is illegal and is a crime."

Newland has until May 2006 to file petitions. He'll need 16,728 valid
signatures. He said he'd like to get started this spring by filing the
formal language of the proposed law, a first step in the process. That
would give petition carriers the opportunity to work fairs and other summer
events where large numbers of potential signers are concentrated in small
areas.

Ten states have some form of medical marijuana laws now. California's law
is being challenged in a U.S. Supreme Court case. Other states with such
laws are Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont
and Washington. Arizona also has a law permitting marijuana prescriptions
but no active program.

South Dakota's Criminal Code Revision Commission considered, but rejected,
a medical marijuana proposal last summer.

In November 2003, the state Supreme Court upheld the marijuana conviction
of an Eagle Butte man who said he needed the drug to ease chronic muscle
spasms he had suffered since needing to use a wheelchair after a car wreck.

Rep. Gerald Lange, D-Madison, sponsored the failed medical marijuana bill
last session. The patient's physician would have been required to say that
the beneficial impact of marijuana use for a patient would outweigh risks.

"There's a nausea effect in a lot of medicine, where marijuana doesn't
cause this kind of side effect," Lange said.

McGuigan said the attorney general's office thought that passing such a law
"would reduce the perception of the risk for drug use."

He also said the active ingredient in marijuana is available in pill form,
with a prescription.

Newland said that pill works for some people. But in cases of severe nausea
that sometimes accompany chemotherapy and other treatments, "the patient
just can't keep it down."

So far, the only ballot issue qualified for the November 2006 general
election is a constitutional amendment defining marriage as a legal union
between a man and a woman. That proposal passed the 2005 Legislature.