PROP. 200 HAS LEAD ROLE IN ANTIDRUG DRAMA By Jeff Barker, Republic
Washington Bureau Copyright (c) 1997, Phoenix Newspapers, Inc.

To Edina Fields, it just wasn't making sense.

An antidrug group was telling her American University
civil liberties class that Arizonans didn't understand the
marijuana for medicine initiative they approved in last
November's election. But Fields, a sophomore, wasn't buying
it.

"I think you can't underestimate people," she said
afterward. "I mean, voters just aren't that stupid."

Arizonans may wonder why 21 college students more than
2,000 miles from Phoenix were debating the circumstances
that led to the passage of state ballot Proposition 200.

The answer: Prop. 200 has been accorded a starring role
in a drugfighting drama being played out in classrooms and
town halls across America.

The privately funded Community AntiDrug Coalitions of
America, or CADCA, which sent two representatives to
address Fields' class, is featuring the Arizona initiative
in a new campaign to steer youths away from marijuana.

The purpose of CADCA's campaign, which also spotlights a
similar California initiative, is to help communities with
lobbying, media targeting, youth mobilization and other
strategies to head off similar measures in their states.
CADCA, based in Alexandria, Va., gets its funding primarily
from foundations and membership dues. Proposition 200 gives
seriously ill patients access to marijuana if two licensed
physicians agree and can show evidence of its appropriate
medical use.

CADCA's campaign is called "Say it Straight: Our Health,
Our Youth and Marijuana." Its goals are laid out in a a
36page booklet being sent to many of its 4,300 members
nationwide. The members include communitybased,
schoolbased and churchbased organizations engaged in the
war on drugs.

The booklet calls the Arizona and California initiatives
"dangerous and misconceived responses, not solutions, to
the medical needs they purport to serve."

"We hope (the booklet) will provide you with the type of
valuable information that you need to develop an
antimarijuana campaign in your state," it says. It
recommends writing letters to newspapers, engaging in
Internet debates and encouraging lawmakers and medical
associations to speak out against medical marijuana
propositions.

Some of the material in the booklet has been contested
by Proposition 200's backers. Among the document's
controversial statements: "The language in these ballot
initiatives for California and Arizona are so loosely
worded that they basically legalize marijuana for everyone,
sick or well, adult or child. Physicians will be able to
legally dispense marijuana for migraines, depression or any
other ailment."

Proposition 200 proponents said the statement wrongly
implies that physicians would bypass their Hippocratic oath
by prescribing marijuana to patients without serious
ailments.

In an interview, CADCA spokesman Tito Coleman said the
language was merely meant to suggest that the Arizona and
California propositions placed too much responsibility in
physicians' hands.

"I'm not saying all doctors will do this, but there have
been lots of cases of prescribing things not for medical
reasons," Coleman said. "Prescription drugs are abused all
the time. People have friends who are doctors and talk them
into doing them a favor."

Besides the booklet, CADCA is employing
satellitetransmitted feeds to gets the campaign's message
to broadcasters. Coleman said he did not know how much the
campaign will cost; he said the satellite feeds are being
provided free by a National Guard production studio in St.
Petersburg, Fla.

CADCA was formed in 1992 by the President's Drug
Advisory Council. Its contributors include the Robert Wood
Johnson Foundation, Knight Foundation, Hearst Foundation
and Pew Charitable Trust.

One of CADCA's objectives in the "Say it Straight"
campaign is to ensure that the "misinformation" used in
Arizona and California is not disseminated in other states,
according to Coleman. CADCA says the propositions' sponsors
falsely suggested that marijuana "is a folk medicine
miracle which is being kept from the public."

In fact, CADCA says marijuana is a likely cause of
negative health effects, such as suppression of the immune
system. CADCA acknowledges that the drug may have medical
applications, but says they haven't been documented.

In February, CADCA financed a survey by Arizona State
University pollster Bruce Merrill that said 85 percent of
voters want Proposition 200 altered in some way and 87
percent want the drugs to first undergo rigorous testing.

However, a rival survey by Washington pollster Paul
Maslin said that 56 percent of Arizona voters would again
vote for Proposition 200, and that 53 percent would
somewhat oppose or strongly oppose repealing it. The
initiative passed in November with 65 percent of the vote.

CADCA addressed the American University class on March
26 as part of a campus program to give students access to
players in current events. An official from the National
Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws was invited in on
another day.

CADCA provided each of the students a copy of its "Say
it Straight" brochure. It also gave $25 to students who
agreed to help CADCA make telephone calls to update its
membership list.

The students reached no consensus on either Proposition
200, or marijuana legalization in general.

"There seemed to be a general acceptance that drugs are
bad, but marijuana was an open question," said Professor
David M. Johnson. "They left confused. But my hope is that
they are confused because they see both sides of the
arguments."