VOTERS GET FINAL SAY ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA

HELENA - When Larry Rathbun was arrested by Dawson County Sheriff's
deputies on marijuana charges in December 1999, he said his multiple
sclerosis was under control and he was still able to walk and ride his
horses.

But when the former Eastern Montana resident was released from Montana
State Prison in 2002, he rolled out the front gate in a wheelchair.

Rathbun, 54, has suffered from degenerative multiple sclerosis since
1971. He said he has long smoked marijuana to ease his muscle spasms,
pain, depression and loss of appetite.

He credits the illegal plant with keeping him out of a wheelchair for
so long. And he blames the stress of prison - and the time he spent
without his drug of choice - for his accelerated degeneration.

Rathbun, a Vietnam veteran who moved to a secluded ranch 15 miles west
of Glendive in 1981, said he grew his plants in peace - and managed
his disease - until someone turned him in to authorities.

"Everyone who knew me knew I was using marijuana for medical
purposes," Rathbun said. "I have never sold it."

Even so, he said his refusal to admit guilt in a plea bargain got him
convicted of felony drug charges.

Upon his release after 19 months in state prison, Rathbun moved to
Washington state, in part because Montana does not legally recognize
the medical use of marijuana.

Come November, Montana voters will have a chance to change this
state's marijuana laws. Activists from the Marijuana Policy Project of
Montana raised more than enough signatures - some 25,000 - to get
their medical marijuana initiative placed on the general election ballot.

Voters will be asked to cast their ballot for or against Initiative
148, a proposed law that would protect medical marijuana patients,
their doctors and their caregivers from arrest and
prosecution.

"They ought to have enough sense and let the doctors have control of
our health," Rathbun said. In Washington, all he needs to legally grow
and use marijuana is a signed letter of recommendation from his physician.

Proponents of medical marijuana say smoking the plant relieves nausea,
increases appetite, reduces muscle spasms, relieves chronic pain and
reduces pressure in the eyes. It can be used to treat the symptoms of
AIDS, cancer, multiple sclerosis and glaucoma, among other diseases,
they say.

But opponents of the law say medical marijuana laws are the first step
on the road to drug deregulation.

The Drug Counselor's Take

"What they're really trying to do is do away with drug laws," sad
Roger Curtis, director of alcohol and drug services for Anaconda and
Deer Lodge County. "And they're trying to get their foot in the door."

Curtis has spent more than 20 years working as an addiction counselor
in Montana. And he said he has seen first-hand the effect drugs have
on lives, families and communities.

"With all the data available to me, with all the lives that have been
ruined by drugs, I certainly have a perspective on why medical
marijuana is not the ideal medical alternative for individuals in
Montana," Curtis said.

For starters, Curtis pointed to new data recently released by the
National Center for Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia
University that shows children and teens are three times likelier to
be in treatment for marijuana use than for alcohol use.

And they are six times likelier to be in treatment for marijuana use
than for all other illegal drugs combined, he said.

He also said marijuana is a so-called "gateway drug," which means
people who use marijuana have fewer inhibitions about using other,
more serious, drugs such as methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin.

While supporters of medical marijuana say they are not advocating for
complete de-regulation of the drug, opponents say the legalization of
medical marijuana would precipitate a law enforcement nightmare.

"There's no way to regulate dosage and it would be really difficult to
regulate the lawful growing of it," said House Judiciary Chairman Jim
Shockley, R-Victor. Curtis and Shockley are formally opposing the
ballot initiative.

And then there's the question of marijuana's medicinal benefits,
Curtis said.

"There's no way, at any given time, the Federal Drug Administration is
ever going to say that smoking marijuana is a proven medical
treatment," Curtis said. "It has more carcinogens in it than regular
tobacco."

A Turning Tide?

But voters have never voted down an initiative in favor of the medical
use of marijuana at the ballot box, according to Bruce Mirken,
communications director at the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington,
D.C. His agency serves as the parent organization to the Marijuana
Policy Project of Montana and has given the Montana effort $170,000 as
of July 5.

"What there is, in fact, is a small faction of drug war fanatics who
have dug in their heels against science and common sense," Mirken said.

Mirken said some federal and local authorities have political
objections to marijuana.

"What's at stake for them is a big part of their budget," he said.
"Marijuana is far and away the most commonly used illicit drug in the
country. If we start rethinking marijuana, some might think they'll be
out of a job."

And he said people who sincerely believe marijuana is just plain bad
are just "badly misinformed."

"Marijuana policy is built on the fiction that this is a drug that is
terribly harmful and has no benefits," Mirken said.

Despite federal drug laws prohibiting the use of marijuana, proponents
of the measure say the tide is finally turning in their favor. Since
1996, nine states have enacted laws that effectively allow patients to
use medical marijuana, despite federal law. A 10th state, Maryland,
has a law that will protect patients from jail but not arrest.

Medical marijuana was approved by voters in Alaska, California,
Colorado, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. In Hawaii, a law was
passed by the legislature and signed by the governor in 2000. In
Vermont, a law was passed by the legislature and allowed to become law
without the governor's signature in May 2004, the Marijuana Policy
Project reports