WASHINGTON AMONG FIVE STATES TO OK MEDICAL MARIJUANA

While supporters of medical-marijuana Initiative 692 were savoring the
aroma of a decisive victory, the principal sponsor was already heading east
to increase the pressure on a reluctant federal government.

Rob Killian was expected to speak at a Washington, D.C., news conference
today calling for national changes in marijuana laws.

He was armed with formidable arguments. In addition to Washington state,
which gave Initiative 692 more than a 2-to-1 victory, voters in four other
states were sending the same message.

Alaska, Nevada, Oregon and Arizona also voted to legalize marijuana for
medical use. Colorado voters appeared to be voting for it as well, although
a dispute over the initiative process in that state meant the vote likely
won't count and will be up again in two years.

The victory margin was overwhelming in all of the states except Oregon. But
while Oregon voters were only narrowly approving medical marijuana, they
were decisively rejecting a companion ballot measure that would have
imposed criminal penalties for marijuana possession.

Killian, a physician who has recommended marijuana to dying hospice
patients, was also the leader of a 1997 measure that was defeated by voters
because it would have legalized a wider array of drugs.

This year, the narrowly defined measure calls for marijuana to be available
for cancer patients suffering from nausea associated with chemotherapy
treatment, or for people with AIDS, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, glaucoma
or some other types of intractable pain. The use would have to be
recommended by a physician.

The measures in other states were similar. The only difference: Washington
calls for a letter from a doctor, while other states would provide licenses
for marijuana users.

The immediate effect, said Killian "is that patients will no longer need to
feel like criminals."

The longer-term goal, he added, is for the federal government to allow
marijuana to be sold in pharmacies.

Initiative 692 allows patients to have a 60-day supply. A care-giver is to
be allowed to help grow or administer the drug, although he or she would
not have access to it for his or her own use.

Advice and major financial support for the campaign was directed here by a
California group, Americans for Medical Rights, which supplied nearly
$800,000.

That group is principally supported by three men: billionaire George Soros
of New York, an internationally known financier; John Sperling of Arizona,
the millionaire founder of the University of Phoenix; and Peter Lewis, an
Ohio insurance executive. The three also were the main financial backers of
Initiative 685 in Washington state last year.

Dave Fratello, spokesman for Americans for Medical Rights, said the group
will now consider initiative campaigns in Maine, Illinois, Michigan and
Ohio. Quirks in a campaign law mean that Nevadans will have to take a
second vote again next year.

But regardless, he said, yesterday's vote "legitimizes the issue. The
pressure on the feds is unmistakable."

King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng, who had been one of the staunchest
opponents of the measure, said law enforcers will respect the will of the
electorate.

"It is going to apply to a very small number of cases," said Maleng, who
noted that his office will not prosecute terminally ill cancer patients but
clearly will be on the lookout for abuse of the new law.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski