ANTI-MARIJUANA ACTIVIST PERSISTENT IN PURSUIT OF EHRLICH VETO

Is Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. part of a secret cabal devoted to the
legalization of marijuana? The governor's office says no, but Joyce
Nalepka, a hard-charging anti-drug activist from Silver Spring, is
growing increasingly worried.

For weeks, Nalepka lobbied the administration to veto a bill that
makes Maryland the ninth state in the nation to ease penalties on
those who use marijuana to relieve suffering from cancer and other
serious conditions. When word spread that Ehrlich intended to sign the
measure, Nalepka showed up at the May 22 bill-signing ceremony to
register her protest.

She never made it.

According to Nalepka, the troopers who stand guard at a reception desk
on the second floor of the State House told her she couldn't join
hundreds of people in the governor's reception room because "you're
not on the list." When Nalepka asked to see the list, the troopers
told her to am-scray.

So Nalepka went downstairs "like a good little girl," though, she
said, "I was just biting nails." Then she ran into a friend from the
Elks Club who insisted that she come with him to wait in the
governor's reception line.

When the pair reached the trooper's desk, Nalepka said "the officer
came down and told me I had to leave," causing an embarrassing scene
that left "500 people wondering what I had done to almost get arrested."

Though Nalepka voted for Ehrlich, she said the governor is now clearly
"very angry with me because I really put the heat on him." While
Nalepka said she understands Ehrlich's desire to show compassion for
the seriously ill, he needs to recognize that he has been "interacting
with people we have known as legalizers for years."

Ehrlich spokeswoman Shareese DeLeaver said she is unaware that anyone
was turned away last week. But DeLeaver confirmed that Nalepka is well
known to the governor's staff as the blond woman who has "been sitting
in our lobby for the past week."

DeLeaver said Nalepka met with Ehrlich's chief of staff, his
communications director and the lieutenant governor, threatening at
one point to "initiate impeachment proceedings" against Ehrlich if he
signed the medical marijuana bill.

If Nalepka was barred from the ceremony, DeLeaver said it was probably
because the troopers believed "she was going to cause a
disruption."

That wasn't a bad bet. Three years ago, Nalepka showed up to protest
then-Gov. Parris N. Glendening's decision to sign a law that made
Maryland the fourth state in the nation to legalize production of
industrial hemp, a non-intoxicating cousin of marijuana.

As state photographers snapped away, Nalepka stood behind Glendening
holding a bumper sticker that said, "Boycott Pot (and all hemp
products)."