3 STATES PASS MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Americans took some of their most intimate health issues into the voting
booth Tuesday, rejecting physician-assisted suicide and a late-term abortion
ban but legalizing medical marijuana.

In Washington state, Election Day meant the end of affirmative action in
state hiring, contracting and higher education. The vote follows a similar
one in California two years ago.

The movement to make marijuana available for sick people picked up major
steam, with voters in Nevada, Arizona and Washington state approving ballot
measures to legalize the drug under certain circumstances.

Nevada passed a constitutional amendment approving medical marijuana,
pending a second ``yes'' vote in 2000. Washington's approval came one year
after voters turned down a broader measure that would have left the door
open to legalizing other drugs.

Arizonans rejected an alternative, ``go-slow'' law in which legislators
urged a delay until the federal government approved the drug. The vote
reaffirms their 1996 approval of medical marijuana.

``I think they voted that way because they are angry at the Legislature for
gutting what they did two years ago,'' said John Buttrick of The People Have
Spoken, the group that led the fight against the Legislature's measure.

Michigan voters soundly rejected physician-assisted suicide. Opponents said
the vote reflected dissatisfaction with the proposed law, not with assisted
suicide.

``It may have been a different outcome if they had a very open-ended piece
of legislation that would be accessible to all suffering patients, not just
the terminally ill,'' said Dr. John Finn, executive director of Hospice of
Michigan.

Washington voters defeated a ban on the late-term abortion procedure labeled
``partial-birth abortion'' by its opponents. Colorado weighed a similar ban.

Taxes figured prominently among Tuesday's 235 statewide ballot measures.
South Dakotans rejected a plan to prevent property tax revenues from
financing schools, and Nebraskans nixed a proposal to limit the amount of
money state and local governments could raise through taxes.

California's Indian tribes, by a margin of 58 percent to 42 percent, won
approval to continue running their casinos unfettered by state control.
Missouri voters amended their constitution to legalize slot machines on
casinos that float in artificial moats. They had already approved riverboat
gambling in 1992, but gambling foes said the ``boats in moats'' -- 10 of the
state's 16 casinos -- didn't qualify.

Missourians also outlawed animal fighting, specifically cockfighting and
bear fighting. Cockfighting was also on its way out in Arizona, and dove
hunting prevailed in Ohio, where voters turned away a ban on the sport.

Massachusetts passed a plan to give political candidates substantial public
money if they agree to voluntarily limit their spending and raise certain
small contributions. A similar measure was on the Arizona ballot.

Massachusetts voters also affirmed their support of the state's new
electricity deregulation deal, which opponents had said was too friendly to
utilities and would not save money for average consumers. Californians also
voted on a new deregulation system.

In environmental news, South Dakota voters tightened restrictions on
corporate farming in an effort to limit the hog industry's power and stink.
Oregon rejected limits on clearcutting while Montana approved a ban on
cyanide in new gold mining projects.

Iowa and Florida became the first states in 22 years to pass measures
acknowledging women's equality, while New Hampshire rejected an effort add
female pronouns to its constitution -- despite having a female governor.
South Carolina voters erased the state's 103-year-old constitutional ban on
interracial marriage.

In other ballot results:

- -- Hawaii's early returns showed rejection of marriage; Alaska voted on a
similar measure.

- --Washington increased its minimum wage and tied future increases to the
inflation rate.

- --The Denver Broncos will get a new football stadium, partly financed by
sales tax.

- --North Dakota hung onto a constitutional requirement that eight colleges be
based in specific towns.

- -- Oregon looked ready to do away with the ballot box and mail in all votes,
and to open its adoption records.

There was also the usual sprinkling of offbeat items, like the one in
Newport, Maine, sparked by complaints about a resident's topless lawn
mowing. Voters decided to mind their own business -- and not ask their
selectmen to ban display of ``female breasts ... visible from a public
way.''

Washington's decision on affirmative action followed a long fight over how
to word the measure. Supporters of the practice favored the question ``Do
you want to end the use of affirmative action for women and minorities?''
But the phrasing voters saw was: ``Shall government entities be prohibited
from discriminating against or granting preferential treatment to
individuals or groups based on race, sex, color, ethnicity or national
origin?''

Polls taken before the election showed most Washington voters in favor of
affirmative action but supportive of abolishing programs defined as giving
``preferential treatment'' to women and minorities.

There was also history to the gay marriage vote in Hawaii. The question
first arose in 1993 when the state Supreme Court said it was
unconstitutional to refuse marriage licenses to gay men and lesbians because
that denied rights given to heterosexual Hawaiians.

In an effort to satisfy the court, lawmakers passed a bill last year
granting gay and unmarried heterosexual couples some legal rights enjoyed by
married people, hoping the court would then be unable to find discrimination
if the Legislature subsequently banned same-sex marriage.

Alaska's vote was part of a wave of preemptive legislating that swept the
country after the Hawaii ruling as states feared they might have to
recognize gay marriages performed there. To date, 29 states have banned gay
unions, and Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act, which denies
federal recognition of gay marriage.

In Michigan, support was initially strong for physician-assisted suicide but
waned when opponents portrayed the initiative as overly complicated and
improperly shielded from government oversight. The measure had a surprising
opponent in Dr. Jack Kevorkian, who has taken part in more than 120
suicides. He said it was too restrictive. Oregon is the only state to permit
assisted suicide.

This election was Round Two for medical marijuana proponents, who ran into
legal blockades in 1996 after successful campaigns to legalize the drug in
Arizona and California. The 1998 measures in four states and the District of
Columbia were written more narrowly, specifying the ailments that qualify
and explicitly saying that marijuana was the only drug at issue. Opponents
nonetheless asserted the initiatives were just a wedge to try to loosen the
nation's drug laws and open the door to open use of LSD and heroin.

Twenty-eight states had previously outlawed intact dilation and extraction,
a procedure that opponents call ``partial birth abortion.'' Courts, however,
have blocked 19 of the laws because their language could apply to other
abortions or failed to provide exceptions to save mothers' lives.

So abortion foes in Washington rephrased their ballot language to shift the
focus from the surgical procedure to the physical state of the mother when
the pregnancy is terminated. Their initiative sought to make it a felony to
kill an infant ``in the process of birth'' and used a new term:
``partial-birth infanticide.''

Checked-by: Rolf Ernst