BALLOT DRIVE FOR 'POT' RX IN ARKANSAS LOSES ITS LEGS

A national organization pushing for the legalization of marijuana for
medical use snuffed out its effort Friday to put the issue to a vote
in Arkansas.

The Marijuana Policy Project's decision, which surprised and
disappointed advocates who have pushed for similar measures in the
state for years, came just a week after the Arkansas Alliance for
Medical Marijuana submitted just over 67,000 petition signatures
asking for a vote.

For the measure to qualify for the ballot, the organization needs
64,456 signatures to be verified as those of registered voters, which
supporters said seemed unlikely. "It would be a miracle if it
happens," said Chloe Crater, a spokesman for the alliance. "Right now,
it would not be an advantage to continue... just because it's
extremely expensive, basically."

Late Friday evening another Arkansas group was trying to pick up where
the alliance left off. Members of the Arkansas chapter of the National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws said they were meeting
to see if they could come up with a way to take over circulation of
the petitions.

The Arkansas alliance's effort this year had been funded chiefly by
$330,000 in donations from Peter B. Lewis of Cleveland, chairman of
Progressive Corp. insurance company, who has given to similar causes
in other states. The Arkansas organization paid The Southwest Group of
Las Vegas to gather signatures.

Even if enough signatures were gathered over the next few weeks to
make up for any shortfall, it would be too expensive to buy
advertising time in the fall because Arkansas is a battleground state
in the presidential race, Crater said.

Bruce Mirken, a spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, the
national organization supporting the Arkansas effort, acknowledged
that the group has known for some time that Arkansas was a focus of
the political parties this fall. But when it appeared the signature
drive wasn't as successful as hoped, the group looked at its resources
and decided they'd be better spent elsewhere, Mirken said. "We
agonized over this for several days and made the decisions when we
felt we could," he said. Debbie Carter of Little Rock, a cancer
patient who spoke on behalf of legalization when signatures were
submitted July 2, was incredulous when reached by telephone Friday.
"After all the signatures we gathered? Why? I find that really hard to
believe after all the work that's gone into it," she said.

Carter suffers from a brain tumor and said that marijuana use could
help her maintain weight as she undergoes chemotherapy. Advocates of
marijuana for medical use say it decreases nausea and increases
appetite. The initiated act proposed by the alliance would allow
Arkansans with "debilitating medical conditions" to use marijuana,
which they or a caregiver grow, on the advice of a physician. Users
would obtain a registry card from the state Department of Health.

Denele Campbell of West Fork, who has helped organize similar,
unsuccessful signaturegathering drives twice before in Arkansas,
learned from a reporter Friday afternoon that the national
organization had pulled its support.

She said she was disappointed for the patients and their families who
thought their efforts would finally be successful this year. "I'm sure
they' re even more devastated than they would have been if they hadn't
had their hopes raised with the commitment we thought was behind this
campaign," Campbell said.

She said state volunteers didn't always see eye to eye with the
national organizers. "There have been disagreements about how this
campaign should be conducted," she said. "There were some issues that
we were unhappy with."

She wouldn't elaborate.

Campbell said her organization, the Alliance for Drug Reform Policy in
Arkansas, will be back before the Legislature in 2005 hoping to get a
similar law passed. The group has tried and failed at the legislative
level before.

Campbell said polls have shown overwhelming support for allowing
medicinal use of marijuana, both in Arkansas and nationally. "We were
so optimistic, with canvassers being paid, that this would allow us to
get the signatures," she said. "We were confident if we did manage it
get it on the ballot, it would be voted in."

Larry Page, with the Coalition Against Legalized Marijuana, formed to
fight the medical marijuana initiative, said he was pleasantly shocked
to learn of the marijuana advocates' decision.

He said it seemed strange from the beginning that a national advocacy
organization would focus its effort here. "Arkansas? What's wrong with
this picture? It seemed pretty obviously the wrong place, and for sure
the wrong time," Page said.

Even though approval seemed unlikely, he said, his organization wasn't
going to let the pro-marijuana group take a "free ride" and had
planned a full-scale opposition campaign.

Now, he said, he can focus more effort on supporting passage of a
state constitutional amendment that would ban samesex marriage.

The ballot committee pushing for that amendment said it had great
success gathering signatures with more than 3,000 volunteers as
canvassers. Leaders of the Arkansas Marriage Amendment Committee said
they submitted petitions June 1 signed by 200,693 Arkansans.

That organization needs 80,570 signatures to be verified as registered
voters.

Carder Hawkins, elections coordinator for Secretary of State Charlie
Daniels, said a contracted accounting firm should begin the process of
verifying signatures next week. The plan is to count the marriage
amendment signatures first because they were submitted first, he said.

The marijuana initiative signatures still will be counted, Hawkins
said.