>MARIJUANA INITIATIVE GETS FUNDS
>OUT OF STATE
>
> Two millionaires bankroll the drive to legalize
> marijuana use.
>
> the associated press
> OLYMPIA, wash. The campaign to legalize
>marijuana in Washington is being bankrolled so far
>not by hirsute exhippies but by two rich and rocksolid
>citizens from arizona and Ohio.
> John Sperling, a multimillionaire Phoenix businessman
>and founder of the University of Phoenix, has pumped
>$212,000 into a campaign for Initiative 685, state records
>showed tuesday.
> Peter B. Lewis, of Cleveland, chairman of the Progressive
>Corp. insurance company and a $10 million dollar donor and
>trustee of the Soloman R.Guggenheim Museum in New York,
>has contributed $50,000 to the campaign, the Public Disclosure
>Commission records show.
> Between them, the two men, have contributed nearly all of
>the money raised so far by the campaign. Much of the cash went
>to signature gatherers to get the measure on the Nov. 4 ballot.
> Reached by telephone, Sperling, 76, said he considers the
>nation's drug policies "nothing short of insane. I can think of no
>redeeming quality. We've been sending $50 billion a year to
>the drug lords, and we think we can stop drugs from coming
>into this country. It's a fraud."
> Laws against use of marijuana and other illegal drugs to ease
>the pain and nausea of cancer patients "are even more insane,"
>he said.
> Lewis,63 listed by Forbes magazine in 1996 as among the
>400 richest Americans, could not be reached.
> Dr. Bob Killian, a Tacoma physician and the initiative's main
>backer, said both men believe "passionately" that current drug
>law is barbaric.
> Both are willing to donate some of their wealth to change
>drug policy, he said. Indeed, records show Sperling gave
>$330,000 to a similar measure in Arizona, which passed last
>year by a 21 margin.
> " These are two very upstanding people,and I consider
>both of those guys friends," Killian said.
> Killian said the money gave the campaign the start it
>needed. " Now, we're working at the grass roots" to win
>voter approval, he said.
> Initiative 685 would allow regulated marijuana and other
>illegal drugs , including LSD and heroin.
> The proposal also would deny early prison release to anyone
>convicted of a violent crime while under the influence of drugs. But
>it would allow judges to release those serving time for nonviolent
>drug possession crimes and to defer sentences for those convicted
>after the measure was passed.
> It is drawing heavy resistance from antidrug crusaders, who
>say it would endorses druguse generally, especially among the
>young.
> Initiative 676, which would impose new safety rules on handgun
>buyers, has received $35,000 from Microsoft magnate Bill Gates
>and his wife, Melinda.
>