JUDGE TURNS BACK PRO-POT GROUP

Oct. 29 - Supporters of the medical marijuana initiative failed
Wednesday in another 11th hour attempt to have votes for the
controversial measure tallied.

Judge Connie Peterson, ruling on a request identical to another the
supporters currently have before the Colorado Supreme Court, refused
to order the Secretary of State to tell the state's 63 county clerks
to tally the votes cast for and against Amendment 19.

"It is unfortunate Amendment 19 is in such a mess," said Peterson, who
is chief judge of the Denver District Court. "Certainly confusion
could have been avoided." But she said that she was denying the motion
primarily because the Supreme Court has an identical motion before it
and because the marijuana supporters have not shown "irreparable
injury" would occur should the votes not be tallied.

Peterson acknowledged that the supporters had shown injury in the
form of time and money spent on the issue, but emphasized that they
still may be able to have the issue voted on in two years by Colorado
voters.

If the measure isn't tallied this year, but a later review shows it
should have been on the 1998 ballot, it will be on the ballot in the
year 2000, said Peterson.

And she added that the Supreme Court, which was first presented with
the issue on Friday, may yet rule whether county clerks have to tally
the votes.

After Peterson's ruling, one of the biggest supporters of the
initiative said that Coloradans for Medical Rights, which sponsored
the amendment, is broke. Martin Chilcutt added that he foresees no
infusion of money into its campaign before the Nov. 3 election.

Legal wrangling has beset the initiative in recent
months.

And on Wednesday the Amendment 19 supporters went before Peterson
claiming that Secretary of State Vikki Buckley incorrectly found on
Oct. 16 that the supporters had not gathered enough valid petition
signatures.

Buckley made the finding after the Colorado Supreme Court ordered
her to do a line-by-line analysis of the 88,815 signatures submitted
to her by Coloradans for Medical Rights.

In ordering Buckley to make the analysis, the court said that "if and
only if" the analysis showed sufficient valid signatures could the
Amendment 19 votes be tallied.

But the marijuana supporters, claiming that Buckley failed to make an
accurate count, told Peterson that their own analysis showed Buckley
had invalidated 2,628 signatures that were, in fact, valid.

As a result, said lawyer Mark Grueskin, there were 290 signatures more
than constitutionally required to place the measure before voters.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry