GROUP DEFENDS ITSELF, POT PROP

Opponents Say Medical Marijuana Backers 'Airlift' Ultra-Liberal
Proposals From State to State.

The $1.5 million effort to legalize medical marijuana in Michigan --
which could affect an estimated 50,000 sick people while keeping pot
sales and possession illegal for everyone else -- is bankrolled
almost exclusively by the Marijuana Policy Project, a
Washington-based group that parachutes into states with campaigns to
alter drug laws and has held fundraisers at Hugh Hefner's Playboy Mansion.

If approved by voters Tuesday, Michigan would become the 13th state
- -- and the only one in the Midwest -- to allow marijuana use for the
treatment of a host of health problems, such as HIV/AIDS, cancer,
hepatitis C and Alzheimer's disease, if a doctor first recommended
the drug could ease their pain and suffering.

The proposal's opponents include representatives of the law
enforcement and medical communities. They claim the effort plays on
voters' well-intentioned desire to help sick people, but say it's
really part of a broader agenda to decriminalize marijuana use for everyone.

"I'm convinced they want to use Michigan as a launching pad to
infiltrate the Midwest," said Court of Appeals Judge Bill Schuette,
who is the point man for Citizens Protecting Michigan's Kids, the
opposition group. He said the Marijuana Policy Project gets its money
largely from a trio of wealthy and ultra-liberal businessmen who live
outside of Michigan.

"These individuals throw their money in a big pot and then the
Marijuana Policy Project folks airlift these proposals into states
like Michigan," Schuette said.

He identified the businessmen as George Soros, a hedge fund investor
from New York who spent $25 million trying to defeat President Bush
four years ago; Peter Lewis, retired president of Progressive
Insurance; and John Sperling who created the University of Phoenix in
his hometown.

Bruce Mirken, director of communications for the Medical Policy
Project, said the group gets its money from donors and its 25,000
dues-paying members.

"Soros is a myth. We haven't gotten anything from him this decade,
and Sperling hasn't given to us as far as I know," Mirken said,
adding that his group has received substantial money from Lewis.

Success From East to West

The project, founded in 1995, has played a big role in getting
medical marijuana ballot proposals approved by state legislatures in
Rhode Island (2006), Vermont (2004), Maryland (2003) and Hawaii
(2002). It also funded the successful 2004 medical marijuana ballot
initiative in Montana.

Mirken said his group decided Michigan was fertile ground since five
Michigan cities have approved symbolic ordinances to allow for legal
medical marijuana: Detroit, Ferndale, Ann Arbor, Flint and Traverse City.

Beyond medical marijuana, he said the group has an interest in
decriminalizing marijuana use for adults.

"We've never been shy about saying we believe marijuana should be
treated like alcohol -- taxed and regulated with appropriate rules
and licensing," Mirken said.

The project -- its advisory board members include former U.S. Surgeon
General Dr. Joycelyn Elders, former Minnesota governor and
professional wrestler Jesse Ventura, television personality Bill
Maher and actor Jack Black -- also backed losing ballot proposals to
decriminalize marijuana use by adults in Nevada (2006) and Alaska (2004).

The group, with 38 employees including lobbyists and attorneys and a
budget last year of $5.5 million, intends to pursue legislation to
ease restrictions on marijuana use this year and next in states such
as Illinois, New York and Minnesota.

Mich. Opposition Gears Up

Opponents of the Michigan ballot proposal, who had raised just
$125,500 as of Oct. 20, launched their first TV ad on Wednesday,
saying that Proposal 1 would lead to the explosion of storefront
marijuana dispensaries that have opened in California.

Ronald Brooks, with California's High Intensity Drug Trafficking
Areas program, told Michigan reporters in a conference call this week
that there are now 153 marijuana dispensaries open in neighborhoods
in the San Francisco area. He said the dispensaries are involved in
money laundering, sales to minors, and getting pot into the hands of
people who suffer from no more than a sore throat.

"There is not a single paragraph, sentence or word within Proposal 1
that prohibits pot shops from opening in Michigan, just like they did
in California," said Schuette, who took part in the call.

But Sandra Cotter, an attorney with the respected Michigan law firm
Dykema Gossett, said most of the opponents' claims are without merit
- -- based on her review of its wording.

"Proposal 1 was carefully drafted to provide limitations and
regulations while allowing the use of marijuana by a very small
segment of the general population," she wrote in the memo distributed
by the Michigan Coalition for Compassionate Care, a Ferndale-based
group that is pushing the medical marijuana proposal here.

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PROPOSAL AT A GLANCE

Some highlights of the initiative that state voters will decide on Tuesday:

. Terminally and seriously ill patients would be able to use
marijuana if a doctor certified that the drug could ease their pain
and suffering.

. A doctor who recommended marijuana to a patient would not be
subject to arrest, prosecution or any professional penalties.

. Patients would be issued state ID cards so law enforcement
personnel could easily see they were legal medical marijuana users.

. An individual covered by the proposed law could legally possess 2.5
ounces of marijuana, or cultivate up to 12 plants in an enclosed,
locked facility.

. Patients would be prohibited from using marijuana in public or to
operate a car or machinery under the influence of drugs.

. Michigan's ballot proposal is silent about where a patient would
obtain marijuana, but the state would not play a role.

. If approved by voters, patients who use medical marijuana would
still be guilty of breaking the law in the eyes of federal law
enforcement agencies. But as a practical matter, federal agents have
not targeted legitimate medical marijuana patients in other states
that have legalized it.