MEDICAL USE OF MARIJUANA HAS FEW VOCAL FOES

AUGUSTA -- It may be a hot-button issue, but a November referendum that
would legalize the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes could sound
like a one-sided argument, for one simple reason -- there is no
organized opposition to it.

With more than six weeks to go before the Nov. 2 election, no one has
created a political action committee to raise and spend money fighting
the marijuana question that is on the ballot. That leaves Mainers for
Medical Rights, the group promoting the referendum, with no formal
opposition.

That, in turn, could mean that no one will mount an advertising
campaign against the referendum between now and Election Day, although
there is still time for opponents to organize.

At issue is the second question on the November ballot. It asks voters
if they want to "allow patients with specific illnesses to grow and
use small amounts of marijuana for treatment, as long as such use is
approved by a doctor?"

Approval of the referendum would implement a law allowing Mainers to
possess "a usable amount of marijuana for medical use" if a physician
believes that would help a patient suffering from any of several
specific illnesses or ailments spelled out in the law.

The ailments include persistent nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite or
"wasting syndrome" from AIDS or cancer treatments; glaucoma; seizures
from a chronic disease; and muscle spasms from a chronic disease.

The law would define a usable amount of marijuana as 1.25 ounces of
harvested marijuana and as many as six plants, including up to three
mature plants.

The state Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices,
which tracks political action committees, reports the only PAC
registered to raise and spend money on the marijuana referendum is
Mainers for Medical Rights, the group pushing the plan. There are no
registered PACs opposing it.

The Maine Medical Association, which represents the state's doctors,
voted against the referendum at its annual meeting Friday. But Gordon
Smith, executive vice president of the association, said Monday his
group has "no current plans to mount what I would call an organized
campaign against the ballot question."

Smith said the medical association or some of its members may express
their opposition in newspaper columns or letters to the editor. But he
said the anti-marijuana resolution approved by the association does
not call for an advertising blitz and there was no discussion of such
a campaign at last week's annual meeting.

In effect, the medical association plans to let its vote speak for
itself.

Other groups that might have been expected to fight the referendum,
such as law enforcement officials and social and religious
conservatives, have not entered the fray.

The lobbyist and the president of the Maine Chiefs of Police
Association could not be reached for comment Monday. Michael Heath of
the Christian Civic League of Maine said his group would have examined
the marijuana referendum more closely if it wasn't focusing most of
its energy on trying to pass a separate referendum to outlaw so-called
partial-birth abortions.

All of which leaves Mainers for Medical Rights alone in the race as
the campaign unfolds. But Craig Brown, a leader of that group, said
supporters of the referendum are taking nothing for granted and have
not ruled out the possibility that an opposition campaign will surface
in the weeks ahead.

"We're planning, whether we have opposition or not, to be aggressively
getting out our message that there are patients who are dying and
suffering now because they can't get this medicine," Brown said. He
said referendum organizers have not decided whether to launch an
advertising campaign if there is no opposition advertising.

Brown said his organization still has to overcome some public
skepticism because of what he described as "all the fear and reefer
madness hysteria that have made the climate so difficult for applying
common sense" to the issue.

Still, a recent statewide poll of 400 Mainers by Critical Insights in
Portland found widespread support for the marijuana referendum. The
poll, conducted from Sept. 8-13, listed 68 percent of those polled as
supporting the referendum, 29 percent as opposing it and 3 percent as
offering no opinion or refusing to answer the question.

William Coogan, a political scientist at the University of Southern
Maine, said it is unfortunate when any referendum campaign fails to
generate organized opposition. He said voters who rely on advertising
can be left without a balanced presentation if supporters are the only
partisans who advertise.

"Having no opposition, you can make whatever claims you want to use
and you won't be tripped up by the opposition," Coogan said. "It's too
bad there aren't people on the other side."