STATE'S VOTERS TO DECIDE ON LEGALIZING POT

California voters will decide this November whether to legalize and
regulate adult recreational use of marijuana. The secretary of state
on Wednesday certified that a Bay Area-based effort to put the issue
on the ballot has collected enough signatures to do so.

If passed, California would have the most comprehensive laws on legal
marijuana in the entire world, advocates say. Opponents are confident
they will easily defeat the measure.

The vote will be the second time in nearly 40 years that people in
the Golden State will decide the issue of legalization, though the
legal framework and cultural attitudes surrounding marijuana have
changed significantly over the past four decades. If Californians
pass the measure, they would be the first in the nation to vote for
legalization. Similar efforts in other states all have failed.

Backers needed to collect at least 433,971 valid signatures of
registered voters, and Secretary of State Debra Bowen said they met
that threshold.

If voters approve the measure, it will become legal for Californians
21 and older to grow and possess up to an ounce of marijuana under
state law. Local jurisdictions could tax and regulate it or decide
not to participate. Marijuana would continue to be banned outright by
federal law.

Current state law allows a person, with a doctor's approval, to
possess an amount of marijuana that is reasonably related to the
patient's current medical needs. People also can obtain cards
identifying themselves as a patient, which helps in interactions with
law enforcement.

"There is no state that currently allows adults to grow marijuana for
personal (recreational) use, but what is totally different and will
be a game-changer internationally is this would allow authorized
sales to adults as determined by a local authority," said Stephen
Gutwillig, California state director of the Drug Policy Alliance
Network, an organization advocating for changes in drug laws. Key supporters

The major backers of the initiative - the founder of an marijuana
trade school based in Oakland, a retired Orange County judge and
various drug-law reform organizations - are planning to oversee a $10
million campaign to push the measure.

Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for
the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said his organization will work hard to
pass the proposition, adding that the California effort is notable
because it probably will be funded by the marijuana industry.

"This is being launched at a time not only of mass nationwide
zeitgeist around marijuana," but acutely so in California, he said.
"Almost all other (marijuana) initiatives were poorly funded, and
what funding there has been ... was purely philanthropic."

But opponents, who probably will include a large coalition of public
safety associations, said that once voters understand the
implications of the measure, it will be handily defeated.

"The overarching issue is, given all the social problems caused by
alcohol abuse, all the social and public safety problems caused by
pharmaceutical abuse and the fact that tobacco kills - given all
those realities, what on Earth is the social good that's going to be
served by adding another mind-altering substance to the array," said
John Lovell, a lobbyist for a number of statewide police and public
safety associations.

Additionally, he said, employers and government entities that receive
federal money may not be able to meet federal standards for drug-free
workplaces if the measure passes, putting billions of federal dollars
in jeopardy. 'Sink like a rock'

"It's terrible drafting ... that will cause the state of California
significant fiscal problems," he said. When these issues are
presented to voters, he said, the measure will "sink like a rock in
the North Atlantic."

Attitudes of voters in California have increasingly moved in favor of
full legalization of marijuana. Californians passed Proposition 215
in 1996 to legalize marijuana for medical use. A bill in the
Legislature would also legalize adult recreational use, and Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger has said it is an idea that should be debated,
although he personally opposes it.

A Field Poll taken in April found that 56 percent of voters backed
the idea of legalization and taxation of marijuana. The measure will
add to an already crowded November ballot, with an expensive
gubernatorial race looming along with other statewide offices.

Prominent candidates running for higher office, including Democratic
Attorney General Jerry Brown, who is seeking the governorship, and
San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris, a Democrat who is
running for attorney general, have said they oppose the initiative.
Don Perata, former Senate president pro tem and candidate for Oakland
mayor, supports the initiative.

The major Republican candidates oppose the measure.

Richard Lee, the founder of Oaksterdam University, has spearheaded
the effort and said he is not concerned about prominent political
opposition to the plan, noting the similar lack of support for Prop. 215.

"I think the voters lead the politicians on this issue and they
realize that," Lee said.