MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAWS APPROVED IN WEST

With Montana's approval of a medical marijuana initiative, nearly
three-fourths of Western states now have such laws -- while only two
of the 37 states outside the West have adopted them.

Why is the West so much more receptive to the idea?

From a procedural standpoint, it's just easier to get pot issues on
Western ballots because most states in the region allow such
initiatives. Nationwide, just 24 states allow citizens to put issues
on the ballot by petition, bypassing the Legislature. Eleven of those
states are in the West.

But activists and political scientists also say Westerners are less
willing than other Americans to tell their neighbors what they can and
can't do. And historically, Western states tend to be in front on
social trends.

"I would guess many of the people that voted for it probably don't use
marijuana, but they don't want to say their neighbors can't," said
Steven Stehr, political science professor at Washington State University.

"Westerners have a stronger belief in kind of individualism in the
old-fashioned frontier sense," said Sven Steinmo, a University of
Colorado political scientist and board member for the Center of the
American West.

The population also is newer than the rest of the country and states
don't have deeply ingrained traditions, said David Olson, political
scientist at the University of Washington.

"Our politics in the West are much less constrained ... and it gives
opportunities for initiatives like the death with dignity issue in
Oregon or medicinal marijuana. You name it," Olson said.

Montana has become the 11th state in the country -- and the ninth
Western state -- to allow medical marijuana. The approval came even as
Montana voted by wide margins to ban gay marriage and to re-elect
President Bush, a Republican.

"We always say in Montana we're extraordinarily independent, so we'll
vote for contradictory things," said Jerry Calvert, political science
professor at Montana State University in Bozeman.

The Montana initiative passed 62 percent to 38 percent, support that
marijuana reform groups say was the highest ever for a medical
marijuana ballot initiative.

Oregon voters rejected a measure that would have dramatically expanded
its existing medical marijuana program. That may have been too
ambitious even for the West, said Bruce Mirken, spokesman for the
Marijuana Policy Project.

Alaska, which also has an existing medical marijuana law, rejected a
measure to decriminalize the drug, though marijuana groups were
impressed that 43 percent of voters there supported it.

Outside the region, voters in Ann Arbor, Mich., and Columbia, Mo.,
approved local medical marijuana measures.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco has ruled that
states are free to adopt medical marijuana laws so long as the
marijuana is not sold, transported across state lines or used for
nonmedicinal purposes. The ruling covers only those Western states in
the circuit. The Bush administration has appealed the ruling to the
U.S. Supreme Court.

Besides the favorable initiative process in the West, the region is
also usually the start of progressive political movements that work
their way East, said Keith Stroup, executive director of the National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

In addition to Montana, Western states that allow medical marijuana
are Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon and
Washington state. Arizona has a law permitting marijuana
prescriptions, but no active program.

Maine and Vermont are the only states outside the West with existing
medical marijuana laws.

For now, medical marijuana has not only found acceptance in the West,
but the region may set the tone for proposals across the country.

"As medical marijuana becomes more regulated and institutionalized in
the West, that may provide a model for how we ultimately make
marijuana legal for all adults," said Ethan Nadelmann, executive
director for the Drug Policy Alliance.