LEMAN DISQUALIFIES POT PETITION

JUNEAU--Lt. Gov. Loren Leman stopped an initiative drive seeking to
decriminalize marijuana, ruling Tuesday that hundreds of signatures
collected were not valid.

Leman, a former state senator who sponsored a bill in 1999 to turn back the
state's medical marijuana laws, said in a statement that the pro-marijuana
group will have to begin from scratch to get its measure before voters in
2004.

The proposed initiative would have asked voters in the August 2004 primary
ballot to decriminalize and regulate marijuana.

Backers submitted 484 booklets containing signatures of Alaskans who
supported putting the measure on the ballot. But officials with the state
Division of Elections found several discrepancies in the petitions, Leman
said in a press statement.

In several instances the identity of those who signed the petitions could
not be verified or were not registered voters, a spokeswoman for the
Division of Elections said.

Election workers also did not count 194 booklets containing signatures
because of poor record keeping, the division said.

Alaska law requires a petition drive collect signatures equal to 10 percent
of the voters in the previous statewide election to get an initiative on the
ballot.