MARIJUANA MEASURES ON 3 STATES' BALLOTS

WASHINGTON -- Alaska will become the first state to make marijuana legal if
voters approve a measure on Tuesday's ballot that has drawn criticism from
the Bush administration.

The Alaska proposal is the most provocative of three ballot measures in
Western states aimed at easing restrictions on marijuana. Montana voters
will consider a proposal to join nine other states in legalizing marijuana
for medicinal use. And in Oregon -- which is one of the states that allows
medical marijuana -- voters will weigh whether to allow patients and
caregivers to grow and possess larger amounts of marijuana than are allowed
now.

The measures have drawn fire from the White House, which has sent
representatives to the states to campaign against the measures.

In Alaska, marijuana is in legal limbo. State courts have ruled that it is
legal to possess up to 4 ounces of the leaf for personal use, but a 1990
ballot initiative made marijuana possession a crime. Legislators say they
will rework the state's marijuana laws to comply with the court rulings.
Tuesday's initiative, however, proposes legalizing marijuana for those 21
and older and regulating it as Alaska and other states do with cigarettes
and alcohol.

Backers of the Alaska measure cast it as a way to help keep marijuana from
youths. "We believe ... we can reduce teen access to marijuana with a
regulatory system," said David Finkelstein of Alaskans for Marijuana
Regulation and Control. "It is clear that prohibition hasn't worked."

Government officials -- including Scott Burns of the White House Office of
National Drug Control Police, who visited Alaska recently -- have countered
with an anti-marijuana message. "Those people who are pushing these
measures look at is as a freedom issue," he said. "But they don't see ...
the addiction issue, the dysfunction in families, the treatment problems.
Nobody can tell me what the upside is of making marijuana more available."

The Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C., has helped the Alaskan
activists by creating TV commercials and buying airtime for them. The ads
emphasize privacy rights and accuse the government of wasting money in
pursuing those with small amounts of marijuana. The local group has
received donations from about 1,000 local donors, but the bulk of its
funding, $854,813 as of Tuesday, has come from the Marijuana Policy Project
(MPP), Finkelstein said.

"There was a strong local movement and we wanted to be of help," MPP
spokesman Bruce Mirken said.

A poll conducted this month for the activists found that the ballot
initiative was trailing by at least 8 percentage points.

In Montana, a medical marijuana initiative that would make the drug
available to patients with a doctor's prescription has received strong
support in several polls.

Paul Befumo, an investment adviser in Missoula who helps lead the campaign
for the initiative, got involved after his father died of cancer. His
father was overcome by nausea and lost weight during treatment, which left
him weak and unable to recover, Befumo said. Marijuana might have improved
his appetite, he said.

Montana Gov. Judy Martz, a Republican, opposes the measure.

The Oregon measure would modify the state's medical marijuana law that was
passed in 1998 to allow patients to have up to a pound of marijuana and 10
plants at one time. It also would require the state to license non-profit
groups to be marijuana distributors. The measure is opposed by the state's
medical association, district attorneys and the White House.