MARIJUANA INITIATIVE NARROWS ITS FOCUS

After Losing Last Year, Measure Back With Specific Conditions For Medical Use

Spokane - Bob McCaslin is a Republican state senator, a 72-year-old who
defends conservative causes and likes small government.

Yet, here he is at the lunch table at Dewey's East in the Spokane Valley,
trying to persuade two similarly minded Republican men to support an
initiative to legalize the smoking of marijuana by sick people.

McCaslin never has smoked pot. ``Too old for that,'' he says. His wife
slowly died over eight years, eating little more than milk and cereal, in
pain all the time. She never asked for any marijuana.

But McCaslin thinks she should have been able to have it. Who knows? It
might have helped the pain some, helped her eat something.

He tells this to Don Reed and D.G. Quinton, who stop by the lunch table to
see the state senator and talk Republican. He asks them if they'll support
Initiative 692. Reed and Quinton shake their heads.

``Cheat, cheat, cheat,'' Reed says. ``It'll get in the hands of the wrong
people.''

``You're going to deny marijuana to a person who's dying?'' McCaslin asks.

For the second time in two years, Washington voters are being asked to vote
on an initiative that would legalize the smoking of marijuana for sick
people. Last year, voters said no.

Proponents say this initiative is an answer for patients who need the drug
to fight nausea and pain. The New England Journal of Medicine supports the
medical use of marijuana. HIV and AIDS patients sometimes use it to combat
the ``wasting'' syndrome associated with the virus. Cancer patients use it
to relieve chemotherapy nausea. Multiple sclerosis patients smoke it for
pain relief.

There is a drug, Marinol, a synthetic form of THC, that aims to mimic
marijuana's relief. But still, some people say Marinol knocks them out,
that they'd rather have marijuana.

Opponents say the proposal is poorly drafted, with loopholes that don't
define how much marijuana a person could have. They also say it doesn't
provide a workable way for patients to get marijuana. Organizations such as
the Washington State Law Enforcement Association oppose the initiative. The
Washington State Medical Association decided not to endorse it.

``It's very irresponsible, and basically they are trying to use people who
are suffering from serious illnesses as pawns in a bigger game of their
attempt to legalize drugs,'' said Mike Suydam, coordinator of the anti-692
campaign, called ``We Said No!''

``You'd have just confusion. What's legal, what's not legal. You'd have
people going out on the streets, trying to figure out how to get marijuana.''

Supporters have raised a lot more money -- almost $786,100, primarily from
groups outside the state, like Americans for Medical Rights. Opponents have
raised a paltry $12,000.

Voters in four other Western states and Washington, D.C., will consider
whether to legalize medical marijuana this year. California voters already
have legalized it. Arizona voters passed an initiative last year like the
one proposed in Washington.

This year's initiative is much narrower than last year's, which also tried
to revamp Washington's drug policies and opened the door to legalizing
heroin and LSD.

Dr. Rob Killian put forth both initiatives. He first saw a patient smoke
marijuana 10 years ago in the hospice where he worked. She was 68, and she
suffered from breast cancer.

This year's initiative allows the medical use of marijuana for specific
conditions, such as cancer, HIV, multiple sclerosis and seizure disorders.
To qualify, patients must first be advised by their doctors that medical
marijuana can help.

Of course, a doctor can't write a prescription for the drug. But Killian
hopes that networks might form to pass out marijuana. He thinks that many
people might grow their own supply.

The initiative would allow people to have a 60-day supply.

``We can't sell it in a pharmacy,'' Killian says. ``That's our weakest
point. We can't change that.''

Opponents of the initiative paint a bleak picture. Suydam says it would
encourage cancer patients and their families to buy marijuana from their
``friendly neighborhood drug dealer.''

Dr. Ronald Springel is more ambivalent. The Spokane physician, who treats
drug addicts, is opposed to this initiative. But he says the nation's drug
policy needs help. He complains that society treats addicts like it once
treated lepers. He says alcohol is much more damaging to society than
marijuana.

Yet this initiative would encourage people to try marijuana and could
increase criminal activity if drug dealers are looking for a new market,
Springel says.

``We have a failed national policy,'' he says. ``But this doesn't fix it.''

Lou, who is 54 and asked that his last name not be used, smoked marijuana
recreationally in the 1970s, but quit because he didn't like being stoned.
He learned he had HIV during a phone call at work, on his birthday in 1993.

He doesn't like Marinol -- it puts him to sleep. But he takes maybe a puff
of marijuana here, a puff there, just before meals.

``It takes care of the nausea,'' Lou says. ``And if I didn't have an
appetite, I'll have one shortly.''

He hopes that eventually the potency of medical marijuana could be
regulated, so he could get some that isn't as powerful as the kind he now
obtains.

McCaslin says his wife's cancer started in her breast and never really
left. She had a mastectomy, a rod in each femur, chemotherapy, radiation.

``It kept getting worse,'' McCaslin says, his hands steepled in front of
his face, his voice breaking. ``It still hurts. She'd complain. I'd give
her all the medication she could have. At the end, she'd ask for pain
pills. I'd say, `Honey, I just gave it to you a half-hour ago.' She was
suffering so. But she was a brave soul.

``I think if smoking marijuana will make you more comfortable, God bless
you.''

Checked-by: Richard Lake