BEEBE OKS WORDING OF 'POT' ACT

64,456 Signatures Needed by July 2

Advocates for using marijuana as a doctor-prescribed pain reliever finally
got the legal OK on Friday to begin collecting signatures to put an
initiated act on the Nov. 2 election ballot.

After more than four months of rejecting the proposed act over ambiguous
language, Attorney General Mike Beebe agreed to the latest wording of the
popular name of "The Arkansas Medical Marijuana Act" and its ballot title.

"I'm thrilled. It's been a struggle to get the wording right," Denele
Campbell of West Fork, executive director of Arkansas Alliance for Medical
Marijuana, said Friday.

Under Arkansas law, proposed initiated acts, their ballot titles and
popular names must be submitted for review by the attorney general, who
decides whether they meet the requirements of state law for clarity and
fairness. Beebe's opinion is not an endorsement of the proposed initiated act.

With the approval of the wording, Campbell's group now has a relatively
short time to gather signatures needed to place the proposed act on the
ballot. The alliance must turn in at least 64,456 signatures of registered
Arkansas voters on its petition to the secretary of state by July 2.

The group has gotten to this point twice before and then failed to get the
necessary signatures. And in 2000 and 2002, the alliance had much more time
to gather them.

Campbell said that's not such a big concern.

"We've got a much leaner, meaner machine now," she said. "We've been
working hard the last five years, and we feel like we can get it done.
We're certainly going to give it a real hard try."

Campbell believes the signature-gathering process would be more difficult
than actual approval of the measure in the election. That's because she
thinks Arkansans overwhelmingly support the idea of legalizing medicinal
marijuana.

She cited the 2001 Arkansas Poll conducted by University of Arkansas
researchers, which showed 63 percent of participants responding favorably
to the proposal with 32 percent opposing it. Under the initiated act, the
Arkansas Department of Health would issue a "registry identification card"
to patients who would be allowed to possess and use marijuana without being
arrested or prosecuted for it.

To qualify, a patient would get certification if his doctor found that he
had a "debilitating medical condition," including cancer, glaucoma,
HIV/AIDS or another chronic or debilitating disease that causes severe pain.

The patient or his "marijuana provider" could possess, grow and transport
marijuana legally, but not more than six plants, or one ounce of usable
marijuana per person.

A patient could have only one marijuana provider, and the provider could
have only one patient at a time.

The Health Department's list of people with registry identification cards
would be confidential and exempt from the Arkansas Freedom Information Act.

Campbell said people whose pain could be eased by marijuana have waited
long enough.

"We owe it to the patients. We've been telling our patients and our
families that we're going to make this happen for five years," she said.

An initiated act is a law initiated by the people through the ballot
process. It can be amended by the Legislature by a two-thirds majority of
the each legislative chamber.

Constitutional amendments, on the other hand, generally cannot be altered
by the Legislature, although legislators are allowed to amend even some
constitutional provisions.