ELECTION CHIEF RULES PETITIONS COME UP SHORT

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - A petition drive aimed at forcing a statewide vote to
allow medical use of marijuana has come up short of valid signatures, and
some of them appear to be forged, Maine's top election official said Tuesday.

Secretary of State Dan Gwadosky said the attorney general's office is
investigating the apparent violations, which also included some petitions
being circulated by non-residents and non-registered voters.

``When the residence is the Scottish Inn in Bangor, you begin to wonder''
whether the petition circulator is a Maine resident, Gwadosky said during a
news conference in his office.

Gwadosky said the group Mainers for Medical Rights was well-financed with
$125,000, most of it donated by a California-based group called Americans
for Medical Rights.

``Not a penny here that we can detect so far is from the state of Maine,''
said Gwadosky.

Gwadosky said he expects the group to appeal his decision to keep the
question off the 1998 ballot. However, the organization still has time to
collect enough valid signatures to qualify for the November 1999 ballot.

Medical Rights leader Stephanie Hart of Sidney said she had not fully
reviewed Gwadosky's report and had 10 days to do it.

``Over 68,000 Mainers signed our petition and they will get to vote on the
medical marijuana issue, if not in 1998, then in 1999,'' said Hart. ``We
are going to look at our options.''

At least 51,131 certified voters' signatures were needed to get the
question on the November ballot. Of the 68,330 signatures submitted, 16,842
were invalidated by municipal officials because they were duplicates or
were given by people not registered to vote.

State officials invalidated another 5,665 signatures because of questions
about circulators' residences and voting status, alterations to petitions,
duplication of some names and other irregularities.

Five people whose names appear on petitions have signed affidavits stating
they had not signed the documents, Gwadosky said.

With only 45,823 potentially valid signatures, the campaign fell 5,308
short of the minimum needed to force a vote this year. Had it met the
minimum, the Legislature would have taken up the question first and
approved it or sent it directly to voters.

The question proposed by Hart's group asks, ``Should it be legal in Maine
for a person to possess or grow marijuana for their own or another person's
medical use?''

Supporters have until Jan. 21, 1999 to file enough valid signatures to
qualify for next year's ballot. The number needed will be equal to 10
percent of the turnout in this year's gubernatorial election. But no
signature older than a year can be counted.

The campaign led by Hart is separate from one led by Don Christen, a
marijuana-legalization activist from Madison. Christen has criticized the
other group as part of a national movement financed by wealthy backers from
outside of Maine.

Americans for Medical Rights, previously known as Californians for Medical
Rights, helped enact a law allowing medical use of marijuana in that state.

Christen's group has not succeeded in forcing a vote on his group's
proposal, which has fewer restrictions on who can use marijuana for medical
purposes than the AMR question.