NEED EXISTS TO REFORM 'POT' LAW, GROUP SAYS

Advocates for reforming Arkansas drug laws called in two homebound
medical patients Sunday to champion a proposal to allow the
chronically ill to smoke marijuana.

Delbert Lewis and James Markes rolled to the podium in wheelchairs to
give testimonials on their medicinal use of marijuana -- Markes to
combat drastic weight loss and Lewis to deal with a debilitating
condition he called "post-polio syndrome." While both acknowledged
smoking marijuana in the past, neither said he is currently using the
drug, which is illegal in Arkansas even for medicinal use.

The Alliance for Reform of Drug Policy in Arkansas hopes to change the
law, which supporters say bars the seriously ill from a medical
alternative that can relieve their pain. Opponents, though, say no
scientific evidence supports that claim and that the medicinal
marijuana movement undercuts the government's anti-drug efforts.

The grass-roots advocacy group, based in Fayetteville, started
collecting signatures last month on an initiative petition to allow
chronic sufferers to use marijuana on a doctor's recommendation.

The plan would require the state Department of Health to administer
the marijuana program, handing out special identification cards to
patients whose doctors recommended the drug. Patients with the cards
could legally use marijuana in recommended amounts.

Denele Campbell, a Fayetteville piano tuner who is president of the
alliance, said organizers modeled the proposal after a
medicinal-marijuana law in Oregon. Similar laws are in place in
Alaska, Arizona, California, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington,
D.C.

Though Campbell said Arkansas supporters are circulating petitions in
support of the measure in 13 counties, she had "no clue" how many
people have signed. To place the proposal on the November
general-election ballot, the group needs the signatures of nearly
57,000 registered voters by early July.

Though Campbell said the initiative is finding supporters in its
Northwest Arkansas base, organizers knew from the start that their
chances were slim to make the July deadline. They decided to press
ahead anyway to at least put the idea of medical marijuana in the
public arena, Campbell said.

Sunday's meeting at Laman Library in North Little Rock was the group's
first venture into Pulaski County.

Mara Leveritt, an Arkansas Times contributor who has written in
support of the proposal, welcomed the 40 or so who showed up for the
session.

Though some voters automatically recoil at any proposal having to do
with legalizing marijuana, Leveritt said, residents in seven states
found good reasons to support medicinal marijuana.

"They have decided this is an issue of compassion," she said. "It's a
civil-rights issue. This is something that physicians should be able
to prescribe."

Markes, a 37-year-old Navy veteran suffering a disabling condition he
described as "collagenous colitis and other pathologies," said the
marijuana he tried as a last resort helped him gain back some of the
70 pounds he lost because of his illness.

Markes, who declined to give his address, said a doctor suggested he
try marijuana after nothing else worked. After regaining 28 pounds in
the first month, he credited the drug with saving his life.

"I know it has," Markes said.

But he has been arrested and fined and had his driver's license taken
away as a result of taking the drug, he said.

Lewis, the polio survivor, said it's wrong for a patient who benefits
from the drug to live in fear of arrest.

"I currently don't use cannabis as much as I'd like to because of the
fear," said Lewis, a former state Department of Human Services
employee who said he had to leave the job because of the debilitating
fatigue caused by his post-polio syndrome.

A self-described "retired recluse" who said he has been out of his
house only three times in as many years, Lewis said he thought he
could still be working if he could legally use marijuana.

"It's ridiculous how the establishment penalizes the most defenseless
members of society" for trying to make their lives more livable, he
said.

The message appeared to be going over well with Sunday's crowd, which
included representatives of the National Organization for the Reform
of Marijuana Laws.

Also present was Tom Brown, the Our Church founder who went to federal
prison after he made headlines for openly planting marijuana seeds on
church grounds, claiming it was for religious practices.

Another man said he was in favor of broad use of marijuana, not just
for medicine. But the medicinal-use initiative is an important first
step, said the man, who declined to give his name. "I'm still on
probation," he explained.

Supporters of proposed constitutional amendments must have 70,701
signatures of registered Arkansas voters on their petitions by July 7
to get proposed amendments on the November ballot.

Supporters of initiative acts have until July 7 to collect at least
56,481 signatures of registered Arkansas voters to get their proposals
on the ballot.

A significant difference between proposed constitutional amendments
and initiated acts is that the Legislature cannot amend a
constitutional amendment that the voters adopt unless the amendment
grants such authority to the Legislature.

An initiated act approved by the voters could be amended by lawmakers
by a two-thirds majority of the House and Senate.