LANGUAGE OF POT INITIATIVE ARGUED

The backer of an initiative to legalize medical marijuana said it will
be the fault of a legislative panel, not his, if the proposition also
grants legal immunity to people who sell drugs to children.

Michael Walz, chairman of Plants are Medicine, admits that Proposition
201 is poorly worded and contains a loophole protecting prescribed pot
uses from other drug prosecutions. But on Wednesday he argued against
including an explanation of the loophole in a voters guide.

As written, the initiative would exclude anybody with a valid
prescription for marijuana from prosecution on a variety of drug
offenses, including selling heroin.

"You are allowing some people to legally sell heroin to children,"
Walz told members of the Legislative Council, who approves final
wording for the voters guide. "It's the judge who decides in a
criminal court what this initiative means."

Lawmakers on the bipartisan panel scoffed at Walz's claim, and
reminded him that it is his initiative that will become law and not
their explanation.

"Don't say I am responsible for this; you brought forth the
initiative," said Sen. Rusty Bowers, R-Mesa. "We just try to explain
it."

Proposition 201 is designed to implement a 1996 voter-approved
initiative to allow doctors to prescribe otherwise illegal drugs to
seriously and terminally ill patients. After the flaw in the
initiative's wording was discovered earlier this year, several backers
pulled out of the campaign. Walz, an attorney who almost exclusively
defends people accused of marijuana offenses, has persisted.