COURT DENIES APPEAL BY ADVOCATES OF MEDICAL USE OF MARIJUANA

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - Activists seeking to legalize the use of marijuana
for limited medical purposes vowed Tuesday to press ahead with plans for a
1999 referendum after Maine's highest court rejected an appeal that would
have put the measure on the ballot this November.

Mainers for Medical Rights had challenged the state's constitutional
requirements that circulators of initiative petitions be residents and
registered voters in Maine.

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court on Tuesday upheld rulings by a lower court
and the secretary of state that the group failed to collect enough valid
voter signatures to force a referendum this year.

In its unanimous opinion, the supreme court concluded that the residency
provision was justified and did not violate the right to free speech
guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution.

``Residence enhances the integrity of the initiative process by ensuring
that citizens initiatives are brought by citizens of Maine,'' the opinion
stated.

``Because the circulators are the persons who verify that the signature and
residence of petitioners are accurate, the residency requirement provides
the state with jurisdiction over the circulators and makes the circulators
easier to locate if there is a question as to the validity of the signatures
collected.''

Noting that the petitioners were given three years to gather the required
signatures, the justices said they failed to demonstrate any need to employ
nonresidents as circulators.

Because the number of signatures invalidated on the basis of the
circulators' residency was sufficient to keep the question off the ballot,
the court did not address the voter registration requirement.

Secretary of State Dan Gwadosky hailed the decision as a step toward
ensuring that the initiative process is carried out by Maine residents
rather than out-of-staters.

``The trend in other states has been for national organizations to come in
and spend an enormous amount of money to gather signatures to place an issue
on the ballot,'' he said, noting that Mainers for Marijuana Rights received
$250,000 from a California-based organization.

Stephanie Hart of Readfield, director of Mainers for Medical Rights,
expressed disappointment at the court's ruling.

Hart said only three of the 250 people who circulated petitions were found
to be nonresidents: a University of Maine student, a sailor at the Brunswick
Naval Air Station and someone who had recently moved to Maine and planned to
permanently settle in the state.

``We still believe that the signatures of Maine voters collected by these
three circulators should have counted,'' Hart said.

Mainers for Medical Rights submitted petitions containing 68,330 signatures,
but a review by the secretary of state found that 22,507 were invalid. That
left the group with 5,308 fewer signatures than the 51,131 needed.

Its court challenge focused on the 1,033 signatures struck down because
circulators were not Maine residents and the 4,347 signatures deemed invalid
because circulators were not registered to vote.

State officials said referendum organizers could continue to collect
signatures in hopes of placing their question on the ballot in 1999. Hart
said petitioners planned to resume the campaign and collect the remaining
signatures needed to force a referendum.

Checked-by: Melodi Cornett