STATE REFORM PARTY TO CONSIDER MAKING MARIJUANA LEGAL

Minnesota Reform Party delegates will be deciding whether to add support
for legalized marijuana, universal health care and local control of
education to the party's platform.

State party chairman Rick McCluhan predicted supporters of new Reform Party
member and presidential candidate Pat Buchanan wouldn't like some of the
proposals. ``The Buchanan delegates will be shaking their heads, saying,
`What kind of party are we getting into?' '' McCluhan said.

Buchanan's Republican supporters have to decide whether to follow him to
the Reform Party. Some have predicted Buchanan's emphasis on socially
conservative positions wouldn't play well in Minnesota and that if Buchanan
is the national party's nominee, he may not be the state party's nominee.

The proposals are to be considered by the party's state convention Nov. 13
in Bloomington, where Gov. Jesse Ventura will be the keynote speaker.

``Some of the planks will be a slam dunk. Some will spur more contentious
debate,'' McCluhan said Tuesday.

Under Minnesota Reform Party rules, the party's endorsed candidates must
pledge support of at least half of all platform planks, which must be
adopted by at least a 60 percent vote of the convention. Candidates also
are required to back three-fourths of so-called ``cornerstone planks,''
those approved by three-quarters of the delegates.

The current state Reform platform, adopted in June 1998, contains just 30
planks. Many deal with reforming government and political campaigns and
erasing the national debt.

The proposed platform, drafted by a committee headed by former Reform
secretary of state candidate Alan Shilepsky, has 79 planks. McCluhan,
however, said he hopes the convention pares it down considerably. Shilepsky
said his panel might make some minor modifications before the convention.

Some key elements of the current platform are retained in the draft,
including the party's support of labor unions and a ``social safety net,''
plus its neutrality on abortion. And the draft still calls for campaign
reforms, a balanced federal budget and limits on government spending.

Some of the proposed planks reflect Ventura's support of a simpler
property-tax system, mass transit, term limits and a unicameral
Legislature, as well as his opposition to public financing of sports
facilities and his questioning of drug laws.

Other planks seem to call for big-government solutions such as providing
health care for all Minnesotans and instituting ``a national employment and
welfare eligibility verification system to stop the trade in false IDs.''