ALLIANCE STEPPING UP EFFORTS FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA VOTE

The Arkansas Alliance for Medical Marijuana is planning one last push in an
effort to place a medical marijuana proposal on the Nov. 2 ballot.

Arkansas Secretary of State Charlie Daniels announced Tuesday the
organization collected 29,947 valid signatures. Proposed Act 1 must contain
64,456 valid signees to be certified for the ballot. The alliance has until
Aug. 26 to reach that number. "We think if we've got enough perseverance
and do enough hard work we can collect these signatures," said Denele
Campbell, executive director of the alliance. "We're going to try. That's
all we can do. I want to stand here and say we're confident we're going to
pull this off, but we're not confident. It's a lot of hard work."

Campbell has spent the past five years attempting to place the issue on the
ballot, and a lack of confidence hasn't affected her or the group's
determination.

In the past two weeks it raised $10,000, which will go toward paying a firm
in Little Rock to collect additional signatures. Canvassing teams spent
April through June collecting the initial signatures.

Campbell estimated a repeated effort could attract 15,000-17,000 new
endorsements, leaving a volunteer campaign to gather the remaining signatures.

Action packets were sent to the nearly 850 supporters on the alliance's
mailing list, which Campbell said includes people who could become eligible
under the proposal, their relatives or friends, and advocates with jobs in
health care, counseling and social work. "These are people on the front
lines who see the need," she said.

The alliance also is seeking additional donations to hire more people to
solicit signatures.

Campbell said she has received several e-mails in the past day from people
looking to get involved. She suggested that people wanting to contact the
group go to its Web site - http://www.ardpark.org "If they don't want to
stand out on a hot street corner and get signatures, they can just send us
money and we can pay other people to stand out there," Campbell said.

If passed, the proposal would allow people to use marijuana to alleviate
severe pain, nausea, seizures, severe muscle spasms or symptoms associated
with ailments such as HIV, AIDS, cancer and glaucoma. "This is about the
patients," Campbell said. "They're facing the end of their lives, facing
tremendous suffering. It doesn't make any sense to keep them from using
anything that would make them feel better.

"This is an effort based in compassion. It would improve their quality of
life."

A prospective user would be required to obtain a physician's
recommendation, which would be reviewed by the state health department.

Once the referral is approved, the health department would issue the
patient a photo identification and present him or her the rules associated
with medical marijuana use.

Patients using marijuana would be able to possess an ounce of prepared
marijuana or grow up to six marijuana plants.

If patients are unable physically to administer the marijuana to
themselves, a registered caregiver would be allowed to assist them.

A database of authorized patients could be created to allow law enforcement
officers to determine who could legally use marijuana.

Similar laws have been enacted in Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii,
Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington to protect sick and dying people,
Campbell said, and the alliance is attempting to provide the same rights
for people in Arkansas who could benefit from marijuana.

"Everyone seems to feel this is a really important issue, "she said." It's
pretty clear cut that we're just trying to help sick people here."

Campbell estimated 100 volunteers each would need to garner 60 signatures a
week for the alliance to obtain the necessary amount to send the proposal
to a public vote.

If it fails, she said, the alliance will attempt to push a bill through the
state legislature in January.