Initiative 685 would allow physicians to presribe pot, heroin and LSD

By Ian Ith
Staff Writer

MOUNT VERNONDoug Bajurin says he needed marijuand just to survive.

Two years ago, his body failing from the terminal diabetes that crippled
his digestive system, the Concrete man said, marijuana was the only drug
that would quell his nausea and allow him to keep food down.

"It was pretty natural just to stick some seeds in the ground" said
Bajurin, 34. "For me, it was either be a felon or suffer a lot more than I
do now."

Then the police came. They tore up his three dozen pot plants, took him to
jail and charged him with a felony.

It took two years and a tangle of legal and medical wrangling before
prosecutors agreed to drop the charges.

Had Initiative 685 been law, supporters say, Bajurin wouldn't have had to
worry. A doctor's prescription would have been all he needed to smoke the
plant that he says makes life bearable.

But opponents of the measure on next week's ballot that would allow
prescription use of marijuanaalong with LSD and heroinday its a poorly
crafted and dangerous proposal.

And the debate in Skagit County mirrors that in the rest of the state,
Local marijuana activists, and people who support efforts by people like
Bajurin, say it's the answer to an intolerant drug policy.

Cops, prosecutors, political leaders and medical workers say it's a veiled
way to legalize drugs across the board.

Initiative 685 is based on a referendum that passed overwhelmingly in
Arizona last year.

The measure would legalize possession of marijuana, heroin, LSD, peyote,
mescaline and a host of other "Schedule 1" drugs by people who are
"seriously ill."

But there are two conditions patients would need written recommendations
from two doctors, and the doctors would have to be able to cite scientific
research to support the drug's use.

The measure doesn't define "seriously ill."

The initiative would also alter state sentencing policy to require
treatment instead of prison for people conficted of nonviolent drug crimes.
An estimated 300 inmates would be released if the measure passes.

Backing the proposal is Rob Killian, a Tacoma hospice doctor who said he
was tired of seeing patients die in pain.

He is joined by three big money backers from New York, Cleveland and
Arizona.

On the other side, Lt. Gov. Brad Owen has been the most outspoken critic.
He has been joined by the Washington State Medical Association and by
former Republican president hopeful, Steve Forbes, who made a recent cameo
appearance, and by other national polititians.

In Skagit County, the allegiances follow the same lines. Bajurin said he
resorted to smoking pot for his diabetes because there simply wasn't
another drug that would stop him from vomiting.

Marinol, a synthetic version of the active drug in marijuana, comes in
irritating prescription pills. They don't work because he can't hold them
down, Bajurin said.

A hundred pills costs more than $600, he said. "It's nowhere compared to
just smoking a joint, Bajurin said. "It's not like I was doing it for fun.
It's doing it because you have to."

Bajurin's criminal charges were dropped by Skagit County prosecutors in
February, largely because Bajurin fit current state law that allows
marizuana use under very narrow circumstances. That required Bajurin to
show that he truly needed marijuana, that it was the only drug that would
help him and that the benefits of using the drug outweightd the social harm.

Bajurin had a Seattle doctor testify to all of those factors. Nine months
later, Bajurin said he has improved to the point he doesn't need to smoke
marijuana for now.

But he still plans to vote for Initiative 685. "I don't need it so other
people don't need it," he said. "I might get to the point where I might
need it again and I want it to be legal.'

Keith Tyne, a Skagit County public defender who represented Bajurin,
agreed. "These are drugs that could be medicine and would releive alot of
suffering, and the reason they aren't allowed is because of politics," Tyne
said.

And Eve Lentz, a Mount Vernon, WA resident who has been active nationally
in efforts to legalize marijuana and the cultivation of hemp, also agreed.

"My personal feeling is that if someone's dying and they say they need it
to feel better, I'm all for it," Lentz said. "I believe I would trust what
my doctor tells me before I would trust what a politician says."

But detractors such as Bob Malphrus, youth services director at Skagit
Recovery Center in Mount Vernon, say the issue extends well beyond whether
terminally ill people should be able to smoke pot.

The measure is so broad and vague that any addict who could find two
sympathetic doctors could legally use any drug they want, he said.

"In my opinion, the one drug that I see the kids having the greatest
difficulty staying away from is marijuana," Malphrus said. "Trying to
afford an opportunity to recover is a difficult task already. This would
make the task much more enormous."

Skagit County Prosecutor K. Garl Long agreed. "The Initiative tries to
address a problem, but it's rather convoluted in it's approach," Long said.
"Simply legalizing the use of drugs will only make the drug trade worse."

And Mount Vernon police Lt. Jerry Dodd, who heads the county's drug task
force, also agreed.

"It gives me concerns because there are alot of unanswered questions," Dodd
said. "To be very honest, I'm very suspicious of it."

But Bajurin said the issue is supposed to be about sick people finding
relief without worrying about dying in jail. "I can't say that (marijuana)
saved my life, but it made it a lot better," he said.