U.S. WON'T PROVIDE POT TO ARIZONA

Officials at a federally funded marijuana research farm in Mississippi say
they never agreed to supply sick Arizonans with the drug, despite wording
in the Arizona initiative suggesting that it would come from there.

Administrators say their farm isn't even a feasible option.

Proposition 203 would decriminalize the possession of small amounts of
marijuana and have the Arizona Department of Public Safety distribute free
monthly doses to the seriously ill.

Under a contract with the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the University
of Mississippi's Marijuana Project raises about one acre of research-grade
marijuana annually for approved research, institute spokeswoman Beverly
Jackson said.

"There's no way Arizona can get this marijuana from the University of
Mississippi," said Thomas Hinojosa, a spokesman with the Drug Enforcement
Administration. Not only would Arizona's request not fit the research
criteria, but it would also conflict with federal law, Hinojosa said. And
generally, federal law takes precedence over state law.

Jeffrey A. Singer, a Phoenix physician promoting the Nov. 5 ballot
initiative, said it would be disingenuous for the federal government to
grow its own marijuana for medical research and not distribute it to the ill.

The initiative states that DPS must send a letter to the institute and the
university requesting "quarterly shipments of marijuana grown at the
University of Mississippi to the Department of Public Safety in such
amounts as are necessary to provide marijuana to all persons qualified,"
beginning Feb. 1.

The institute has been growing pot under tight conditions in Oxford, Miss.,
since the 1970s, shipping it to about a dozen research programs that
service several hundred people.

Singer said that if DPS fails to get the marijuana from the farm, the
agency can use confiscated marijuana after screening it. People would also
have the option of growing up to two plants for medical purposes, according
to the initiative.

DPS has opposed the measure. Some patients who say they need marijuana have
spoken in favor of it.

"I'm forced to get marijuana under the nastiest conditions right now," said
Josh Burner, a Mesa resident who has been using the drug since the
mid-1990s, when he was diagnosed with cancer.

"I have no way of knowing whether the marijuana I buy off the streets is
safe," he said. "I'd rather get it from DPS."

The initiative would allow anyone to register for the drug as long as they
can show a doctor's recommendation or copies of his or her medical records.

The measure, sponsored by a committee called People Have Spoken, could
create headaches for DPS, an already cash-strapped agency.

"We don't have the money to test the marijuana we seize to see if it's safe
enough to distribute," DPS spokesman Frank Valenzuela said. "We'd be
foolish to not test it and just send it out."

In 1996, Arizona voters approved a measure allowing marijuana with a
doctor's prescription, but lawmakers effectively nixed its use by putting
doctors at risk of losing their licenses for prescribing it.

Two years later, voters again passed a similar law, but doctors still
aren't prescribing marijuana because the federal government has threatened
to take their licenses away, initiative proponents said.

"Despite their political leadership being so opposed for such a long time,
people in Arizona are able to make the distinction between marijuana
decriminalization and legalization," said Allen St. Pierre, executive
director of National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws
Foundation, a non-profit group that educates the public about marijuana
policy options.

St. Pierre said the group is keeping close tabs on marijuana initiatives in
Michigan, Ohio, Nevada, South Dakota, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

He thinks voters will likely approve Arizona's measure, but that the
Legislature will balk and refuse to create a model for DPS to distribute
the marijuana.

"The real culpability here is in Washington, D.C.," St. Pierre said.