LEGAL MARIJUANA USE AIM OF LOCAL PETITION

If Key Westerns Joe Hart and Hans Ashbaucher have their way, Florida will
join California and Arizona as states with legal medical marijuana.

Hart and Ashbaucher, both HIV-positive, smoke marijuana to combat nausea -
a side effect from the AIDS drugs they must take to stay alive.

The two have collected almost 1,000 petitions in the Lower Keys.

They're combining efforts with a dozen Florida medical-marijuana groups to
place a referendum on November's ballot. This was the same approach used by
California and Arizona.

"This is an unofficial gesstimate," Hart said, "but we have about 12,000
names right now."

Hart said the various groups need 45,000 names.

The ballot states that patients have the right to obtain and use marijuana
for medical purposes when a licensed physician has certified it, that
doctors cannot be prosecuted for prescribing it, and people cannot be
prosecuted for selling it to patients.

Several Florida groups are supporting and working on the petition drive,
including: The American Civil Liberties Union, Families

Against Mandatory Minimum, the Florida Governor's Red Ribbon Panel on AIDS,
the Florida Medical Association, and the Dade County Medical Association.

"This ballot simply places medical decision making where it belongs," said
Andy Cayton of the ACLU. "In the hands of physicians and their patients.
This initiative will politely dictate that the generals and sheriff step
outside the physicians' examining room and leave doctors and patients alone."

Hart and Ashbaucher said pressure from the government has already started.

"Dan Lunger is blocking the petition drive," Ashbaucher said. "He's the one
that fought California's prop- 215. He said 215 is causing a rise in
marijuana use. It isn't."

The Florida legislature doesn't want to see a " Florida- 215" either. They
recently condemned the petition, and voted to do everything possible to
stop the initiative.

"They're worried Florida will vote for it," Ashbaucher said. ''In the
latest USA Today poll, 80 percent said they were in favor of medical
marijuana."

"I was spending $360 a month on Marinol, and it didn't work," he said. "I
kept throwing the pills up."

Like many HIV patients, Hart and Ashbaucher are in a catch-22 situation.
The protease inhibitors they take to keep their immune systems working
cause massive nausea , which untreated, can lead to death by starvation.

Hart was arrested last year when he received almost four pounds of
marijuana from Switzerland. The marijuana came from the Swiss Hemp Trading
Company. Hart said he met the owners of Swihtco at a medical marijuana
convention in Philadelphia. He said he had no idea they were going to send
him anything. Because of the amount and method of delivery, Hart faces two
felony counts and several misdemeanors.

Hart goes to court April 9. He said several marijuana experts will testify
at his trial, including a woman who is one of eight people legally allowed
pot by the federal government.

"I wouldn't take their plea bargain," Hart said. "We're not hiding anymore.
We are not criminals, but we have to live a criminal way of life to
survive."