FINANCIAL BACKER OF POT INITIATIVE SAYS PROHIBITION DOESN'T WORK

OLYMPIA - A 47-year-old Seattle software programmer has identified
himself as the millionaire providing the financial backing for an
initiative to legalize marijuana in Washington.

Bruce McKinney, a Microsoft millionaire, has donated $100,000 to the
Campaign for the Restoration and Regulation of Hemp, sponsor of
Initiative 229, which would permit marijuana sales in state liquor
stores and license farmers to cultivate cannabis.

"I'm acting because I believe prohibition causes serious damage to the
health of our state and our nation," McKinney said.

Backers unveiled the initiative and its $100,000 treasury last week,
but declined to identify the donor, other than to say he was a
Microsoft millionaire.

McKinney left Microsoft two years ago and started his own software
company. He describes himself as active in civic issues, such as a
drive to scale back plans for new construction at Seattle's Washington
Park Arboretum.

While at Microsoft, he wrote Hardcore Visual Basic, a well-known
programming language book.

McKinney, who says he uses marijuana occasionally, lives on Lake
Washington in the Montlake neighborhood and likes to canoe. He is
divorced and is a free-lance writer for several trade publications. He
worked for newspapers when he was in his 20s.

Supporters of Initiative 229 are trying to gather the 180,000
signatures they need by Dec. 31 to submit the measure to the
Legislature. If, as expected, lawmakers don't approve the initiative,
the measure would be placed on the ballot in November 2000.

Supporters say the measure could raise millions for Washington because
the state would get a financial cut from each marijuana sale. Ninety
percent of tax revenues would go to the state general fund; the
remainder would be split among drug-treatment and drug-education programs.

McKinney said he supports the initiative because marijuana prohibition
is an invasion of privacy and is doomed to failure because the drug is
so widely available.

"We've tried this experiment for more than 60 years," he said. "It
doesn't work now, and it isn't ever going to work."

McKinney's money already has allowed sponsors to hire paid signature
gatherers. "If worse comes to worse, I would probably donate some
more," McKinney said.

This spring McKinney donated $10,000 to a similar initiative campaign
in Oregon. Paul Stanford, executive director of the Portland-based
Campaign for the Restoration and Regulation of Hemp, is organizing the
effort in both states.

McKinney said he got involved in the Oregon effort when he came across
the campaign's Web site http://www.crrh.org.

He suggested the group also push an initiative in Washington, and
pledged his financial backing. Stanford was already considering a
campaign here.

Since Stanford is an Oregon resident, his 65-year-old mother, Flonie
Green of Federal Way, is the official sponsor of Initiative 229.

"I believe in the initiative," Green said. "People are going to use it
(marijuana) no matter what. I think we should be able to get the money
for schools and taxes and all that stuff. If it's illegal we get
nothing from it."

Supporters spent Sunday at Seattle's Hemp Fest, and said they gathered
about 20,000 signatures. The group plans to set up headquarters next
month in the University District.