Ariz. voters said yes to pot for medical use. Lawmakers said no.

Annulling a marijuana vote

By Gwen Florio
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

TUCSON, Ariz. Last fall, Arizona's voters, along with those in California,
approved a ballot measure allowing the use of marijuana as a medical
treatment.

Today, Arizona's government will finish the business of dismantling that
measure.

Gov. Fife Symington is expected to sign a bill, passed by both houses of the
state legislature, forbidding doctors from prescribing any drug that lacks
approval of the federal Food and Drug Administration.

Marijuana does not have FDA approval and thus would be banned for medicinal
use no matter that nearly twothirds of the voters approved the opposite
position.

Advocates of the ballot measure are expected to file a lawsuit.

``The legislature has said the people were too stupid to know what they were
voting for,'' said Dr. Kevin Carmichael, who treats AIDS and HIVpositive
patients who are among the most vocal proponents of medical marijuana use
at the El Rio Health Center in Tucson.

``I must say I find it extremely annoying and disconcerting,'' he said,
``that the people of Arizona would vote on something and the legislature
would say no.''

The legislature's action is extremely unusual, said Craig Holman, who tracks
ballot initiatives nationwide for the nonprofit Center for Governmental
Studies in Los Angeles.

Typically, legislatures will finetune ballot initiatives, he said. But to
gut one so thoroughly is nearly unheard of.

``I'm sure this sets all records for having repealed an initiative, and
having repealed it in its entirety, so quickly,'' he said. ``It is really
quite devastating to the political process. If nothing else, they've
really alienated voters.''

For years, people suffering from AIDS, cancer, glaucoma and other
debilitating illnesses have sought the right to have doctors prescribe
marijuana to relieve problems associated with their illnesses.

But immediately after the California and Arizona measures were approved, the
Clinton administration threatened to yank the prescriptionwriting license of
any doctor who prescribed marijuana in those states.

This week, the White House National Drug Policy Office praised the Arizona
Legislature for the bill, saying it had ``taken a very responsible course of
action.''

The measure approved by Californians allowed possession and use of marijuana
by patients or caregivers, if recommended by two doctors. Last week, a
federal judge in San Francisco issued a temporary order banning the Justice
Department from prosecuting California doctors who prescribe marijuana.

Arizona's Prop 200 went further than California's, permitting the
prescription of all ``Schedule 1'' drugs marijuana, methamphetamines, LSD
and heroin for medical use.

And that made it vulnerable for a counterattack.

Some legislators, such as Senate Majority Leader Marc Spitzer, portrayed Prop
200 as an attempt to legalize all those drugs in Arizona.

``They're trying to go through the back door in a very duplicitous way,''
said Spitzer, a Phoenix Republican. ``If there is some medical benefit, these
drugs will get approval from the FDA.''

The governor's spokesman, Douglas Cole, said Symington would sign the bill
because he ``does not like crack, LSD and heroin and does not believe they
have medicinal purposes.''

Senate Minority Leader Ruth Solomon, a Tucson Democrat, said the Republicans
should have paid more attention to the will of the people.

``The voters very clearly said, `This is what we want,' '' she said. ``And
then we [the legislature] said, `This is what you did, and we don't like it.'
'' The decision, she said, smacks of paternalism, arrogance and
unresponsiveness.

Jean Cicci, 46, agrees with Solomon. Although Cicci said she doesn't smoke
marijuana herself ``it makes me too stupid'' 10 of the 25 people in her
building are regular users. Like Cicci, all 10 have AIDS.

She said they depend upon pot to increase their indifferent appetites and to
fight off the nausea associated with chemotherapy or the new ``AIDS
cocktail'' drugs. ``There are people here who are dying,'' said Cicci. ``I
know they need this to get through.''

Cicci volunteers as a peer counselor at PACT for Life, the People with AIDS
Coalition of Tucson. Her clients are upset, afraid and angry, she said. And
so is she.

``This just doesn't seem right to me that the legislature can just do this,''
Cicci said. ``What was the sense in voting on [ Prop 200 ] in the first
place?''

Philadelphia Online The Philadelphia Inquirer, National Copyright
Friday, April 18, 1997