GROUP WANTS TO PUT LEGALIZED-MARIJUANA ISSUE ON BALLOT

OLYMPIA -- Buoyed by a $100,000 contribution from a retired Microsoft
millionaire, a group filed notice yesterday that it will try to collect
enough signatures to put a statewide measure on the ballot to legalize and
regulate the sale of marijuana.

Supporters of the Washington Cannabis Tax Act said they are confident they
can gather the approximately 180,000 signatures needed by Dec. 31 to put the
measure before voters in the November 2000 general election.

If approved, the measure would allow marijuana to be sold at state liquor
stores to those 21 and older. The measure also would regulate how farmers
could grow marijuana and how retail sales would be taxed.

The unidentified former software programmer from Seattle has promised to
bankroll the effort as much as necessary to collect the needed signatures,
said D. Paul Stanford, executive director of the Campaign for the
Restoration and Regulation of Hemp, which is sponsoring the initiative.

Volunteers hope to jump-start that work by gathering 20,000 signatures this
Sunday at the Seattle Hempfest '99 in Myrtle Edwards Park, said Stanford of
Portland.

If the group succeeds in its petition drive, the measure would go before the
Legislature next year. Lawmakers can approve it or ignore it. If they ignore
it, it would be put before voters in the November 2000 general election.

The Legislature also has the option of submitting its own plan as an
alternative ballot question.

The plan is unlikely to win over lawmakers, said Rep. Ida Ballasiotes,
R-Mercer Island, who is co-chairwoman of the state House Criminal Justice
and Corrections Committee.

"I don't think it will get support, I really don't," Ballasiotes said. "I
don't think our people think it's OK to walk into a liquor store and buy
marijuana. . . . I think we have enough problems with drugs as it is."

Last November, voters approved a more limited proposal to allow the medical
use of marijuana for certain terminal or debilitating conditions. Initiative
692 did not authorize the distribution of marijuana.

This new measure would alleviate that obstacle, which is especially
burdensome for seriously ill people, Stanford said.

"They don't have the time to plant a seed and wait for a harvest," Stanford
said.

I-229 also would prescribe how tax revenue from the sale of marijuana should
be used. Ninety percent of the money would go to the state general fund, 8
percent to drug treatment, 1 percent to drug education for children and 1
percent to set up a state committee to promote industrial hemp fiber,
protein and oil.

The measure would prohibit the use of marijuana in public, including
outdoors and ban advertising the drug on television, radio and billboards,
Stanford said. The measure also would allow licensed farmers to grow
marijuana for liquor store distribution and unlicensed farmers to grow
industrial hemp.

Stanford's group is sponsoring a similar initiative in Oregon. So far,
supporters there have gathered 14,000 of the 66,000 signatures required by
July to put the question on Oregon's November 2000 ballot, Stanford said.