STATE MAY NOT DEFEND MEASURES ON POWERBALL, MEDICAL MARIJUANA

If you have visions of sitting back, smoking a joint, while watching to see
if you've won the Powerball lottery, hold that thought for a moment.

Colorado Attorney General Ken Salazar said Wednesday that he is undecided on
whether to defend marijuana and gambling measures against lawsuits from
opponents.

Salazar says he leans in favor of defending the Powerball multistate lottery
referendum, but he's waiting for his staff to complete an analysis of the
constitutional issues.

Opponents of Amendment 20, the medical marijuana initiative, don't have a
legal challenge yet. But Salazar said the fact that marijuana possession is
against federal law means he might have to consider not defending against a
challenge.

"I know there are enough concerns about ... having a state program that is
in violation of federal law," Salazar said. "I will at least consider the
option of not defending it."

Salazar, a Democrat, and Gov. Bill Owens, a Republican, opposed the gambling
and marijuana measures.

Generally, it is the duty of the attorney general to defend the outcome of
an election. This sometimes results in strange pairings. In 1992, after
state voters OK'd Amendment 2 to bar anti-discrimination laws for
homosexuals, Gov. Roy Romer was obliged to defend the outcome, even though
he strongly opposed the amendment.

The legislature put the gambling proposal on the ballot and would be free to
mount its own court defense of it.

Lawsuits are expected to be filed against the Powerball referendum, with one
coming from former legislator and gambling opponent Gerald Kopel. The
measure, which allows the Colorado Lottery Commission to join with other
states in offering huge multistate lottery payouts, may run counter to at
least two requirements in the Colorado Constitution.

Kopel said he will sue on grounds that the gambling measure requires that
surplus revenue go to schools, which violates a constitutional provision
that gambling surpluses go to the general fund.

The constitution also limits Colorado to participating in lotteries it
controls. Multistate lotteries, Owens argues, aren't under Colorado control.

Dr. Joel Karlin, a leader of the opposition to the medical marijuana
initiative, said his side will work with the legislature, the Colorado
Department of Public Health and Environment and the state Board of Medical
Examiners to see whether the program will get off the ground.

In other states where medical marijuana laws have passed, the U.S. Justice
Department has worked against implementation. In California, the federal
government moved against doctors who wrote prescriptions for marijuana.

But in Colorado, Amendment 20 got around that by not requiring doctors to
write prescriptions. Instead, patients who want to smoke marijuana must have
a doctor render an opinion that it might be helpful to relieve nausea and
pain from certain ailments.