MARIJUANA USE FOR MEDICINE ON WASHINGTON STATE BALLOT

OLYMPIA, Wash.--A citizens initiative to legalize the use of marijuana for
medicinal purposes will appear on the statewide ballot in November,
Washington state officials say.

State election officials said they had certified 198,378 signatures as
valid, about 19,000 more than the required number needed to place the
proposal before the voters Washington joins Oregon and Alaska as the three
states that will put the question of medicinal marijuana use before the
public as a ballot initiative this fall.

Similar proposals are pending in Colorado and Nevada. Voters in California
and Arizona have approved measures in recent years to legalize medicinal
use of marijuana, but legal challenges and other controversies in both
states have prevented full implementation.

"I'm looking forward to a good campaign," said Washington state initiative
sponsor Dr. Robert Killian. "There'll be a lot more media attention
probably nationally because of this. And I'm ready for it."

The Washington state proposition permits patients suffering from terminal
or debilitating illnesses -- such as cancer, multiple sclerosis, or AIDS --
to get a doctor's authorization to smoke marijuana.

Patients would have to come up with the drug on their own after receiving
authorization. Killian said most patients would probably grow the plant
themselves.

Non-medical use of marijuana would still be prohibited.

The medical marijuana legalization campaign in the Pacific Northwest has
been bankrolled almost entirely by three multimillionaires. New York
financier George Soros, Progressive Insurance CEO Peter Lewis of Cleveland,
and Phoenix businessman John Sperling each donated $125,000 to the
Washington state ballot campaign and gave smaller amounts to the Oregon
effort.

Last November, Washington state voters soundly rejected a broader drug
reform initiative bankrolled by the same three men and run by Killian. That
effort sought to ease jail sentences for low-level drug crimes and legalize
medical use of a broad range of prohibited drugs, including heroin.

Killian predicted better chances for passage this year now that the ballot
measure has been narrowed to the concept he claimed has the widest popular
support: allowing people suffering from intractable pain to use marijuana.

Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited.

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)