TOBACCO TAX, LEGAL POT, GAY MARRIAGE INITIATIVES QUALIFY FOR NOV. BALLOT

Voters will decide the fate of seven initiatives and referendums in
the November general election.

The Montana Secretary of State's Office approved last week four voter
initiative petitions, among them calls to more than double the taxes
on most tobacco products and to legalize marijuana for medical purposes.

Submitted by Jonathan Motl of Helena, Initiative 149 is one of four
citizen-authored proposals and would increase the 70-cent tax on a
pack of cigarettes to $1.70. The tax on chewing tobacco would jump
from 35 cents to 85 cents an ounce, and the tax rate on other tobacco
products would double from 25 percent to 50 percent of the wholesale
price.

Most of the money created if the measure passes would be spent on
programs providing health insurance to poor children and prescription
drugs to poor children, the elderly and the chronically ill and
disabled. It would also help small businesses that offer employee
health insurance. The governor's budget office estimates the measure,
which takes effect Jan. 1 if passed, would raise $44.7 million in its
first year.

About $6 million would be added to the state coffers and $414,000
would be available for state building needs.

The secretary of state's office said it certified 26,187 petition
signatures from 33 of 56 counties to qualify the measure. To get on
the ballot, each initiative needed at least 20,510 signatures
representing a minimum of 5 percent of the votes cast for governor in
the 2000 election from at least 28 counties.

The medical marijuana measure, known as I-148, had 22,059 certified
signatures in 28 counties. The measure, submitted by Paul Befumo of
Missoula on behalf of the Medical Marijuana Policy Project, would
allow Montanans to grow, possess and use limited amounts of marijuana
to treat certain medical conditions and combat related pain, nausea,
seizures and muscle spasms. Patients could use marijuana under medical
supervision to alleviate symptoms related to such diseases as cancer,
glaucoma and AIDS.

The state also certified an initiative to repeal a 6-year-old ban on
using cyanide in new gold and silver mines. More than 21,166 voters
qualified the initiative in 39 counties.

The initiative, submitted by Tamara Johnson on behalf of Environomics,
seeks to amend state law to allow open-pit mining for gold and silver
using heap leaching or vat leaching with cyanide ore-processing agents.

If passed, I-147 would overturn a cyanide ban approved by 52 percent
of the voters in 1998. The ban halted mining plans near Lincoln, and
the 2003 Legislature considered a bill for a ballot measure to repeal
the ban.

A constitutional initiative to ban gay marriages also garnered enough
signatures to make the ballot. Proposed by Jeff Laszloffy of Laurel,
CI-96 would amend the Montana Constitution to add a new section
stating "only a marriage between one man and one woman shall be valid
or recognized as a marriage in this state." The amendment would be
effective upon voter approval.

The initiative was certified with 46,095 signatures from 38 counties
last week before all of the signatures were received. As a
constitutional amendment, the measure needed at least 41,020
signatures from 28 or more counties submitted to the secretary of
state's office.

The Legislature sent three constitutional amendments for voter
approval in the 2003 session.

* CA-40 to create in the constitution a $10 million trust fund for
combating noxious weeds.

* CA-41 to create a constitutional right to hunt and
fish.

* CA-42 to extend term limits for legislators from eight years in any
16-year period to 12 years in any 24-year period.