VOTERS FAVORING MEDICAL MARIJUANA

The opponents of Amendment 20 have some impressive big guns on their side -
the American Medical Association, the American Cancer Society, law
enforcement leaders.

But for now at least, proponents of legalizing marijuana for medical use
have the voters on their side.

A Denver Post/9News/KOA News Radio poll found that 67 percent of likely
voters support Amendment 20, while 28 percent oppose it.

"I'm very pleased," said Julie Roche, campaign director for Coloradans for
Medical Rights 2000.

Spokespersons for the main group opposing the amendment, Coloradans Against
Legalizing Marijuana, could not be reached for comment.

Amendment 20 would create a registry of seriously ill patients who, with a
physician's approval, would be issued a card entitling them to use
marijuana for medical purposes. The amendment does not create a system for
distributing marijuana to the patients.

Opponents say the effort to legalize medical marijuana is a first step
toward legalizing the drug overall; and they argue its medical
effectiveness hasn't been proven and that legalizing it would send the
wrong message to youth.

A proposition to legalize medical marijuana was on the November 1998
ballot, too. But because of a fight over whether signatures gathered to put
the issue on the ballot were valid, the votes - they called it Amendment 11
that time - were never counted. But exit polls showed the amendment
probably would have passed.

According to Roche, the exit-poll margins were about the same as the Denver
Post poll results, conducted late last month with 500 likely voters.

So far both sides have run a fairly low-key campaign.

A Web site operated by Coloradans Against Legalizing Marijuana is under
construction - it reportedly will include a letter from Gov. Bill Owens
explaining why he's opposed to legalizing medical marijuana.

Roche said her group's campaign has largely been a grassroots one up to
now. They just recently bought some television and radio time, Roche said.