VOTERS SNUFF OUT MEASURES ON POT, DRUG REFORM

Advocates hoping to soften Americans' attitudes toward marijuana ran into
vigorous opposition, spearheaded by the White House, and drug reform ballot
measures were voted down in Nevada, Arizona and Ohio.

Wealthy backers who had succeeded with several past initiatives to ease
access to marijuana for medical uses sought to go a step further and lessen
penalties for its use in general, and many voters apparently drew a
distinction.

Elsewhere, Florida voters banned smoking in most indoor workplaces and
restaurants, making theirs the latest state to pass a smoking ban. Four
other states have passed similar bans. Arizona residents slapped smokers
with an increase in cigarette taxes from 58 cents to $1.18 per pack;
Missouri narrowly defeated a quadrupling of the cigarette tax.

Tennessee amended its constitution to allow statewide lotteries, leaving
Hawaii and Utah as the only states without any form of legalized gambling.

Massachusetts residents voted to eliminate bilingual education, but
Colorado voters decided to keep it. It was only a partial victory this year
for Silicon Valley millionaire Ron Unz, who poured money into both
campaigns. Unz, who condemns bilingual classes as a black hole leaving
students lacking in English, began his English-immersion movement in
California four years ago and scored victories there and in Arizona in 2000.

In the initiative hotbed of Oregon, voters rejected two hotly contested
measures, one that would require companies to label genetically modified
food and another to universalize health care. The latter was expected to
cost taxpayers $1.7 billion.

It was the pro-pot initiatives, however, that drew the most attention this
year.

Early polls had made advocates optimistic. The measures were heavily
financed by three billionaire philanthropists, George Soros, John Sperling
and Peter Lewis, who plotted the campaigns as part of a broader effort to
roll back the federal war on drugs.

During the past six years, the three have financed successful efforts to
pass 17 of 19 state-level initiatives easing drug laws. In the past,
though, most of the measures dealt with medical marijuana.

This time, voters in Nevada defeated a measure to legalize the possession
of up to 3 ounces of marijuana. In Arizona, residents rejected an
initiative that would have likened marijuana possession to a traffic violation.

Finally, Ohio defeated a proposal that would have required judges to order
treatment instead of jail for certain offenders who requested it.

President Bush's newly appointed drug czar, John Walters, campaigned in all
three states against the measures, joining with state law enforcement,
judicial and political leaders in denouncing them.

Walters and other opponents characterize marijuana as a gateway drug that
leads to increased drug abuse by youths. Besides, they say, it causes
traffic accidents, domestic violence and health problems.

Advocates were surprised by the force with which the White House fought
them in this election.

"What we have seen tonight is how hard the drug war ideologues are willing
to fight and how dirty they're willing to fight," said Bruce Merken, a
spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, one of the groups that
coordinated the campaigns. "I think we need to sit down and take a deep
breath and take a look at how we can present the facts in a way that people
can understand them," said Merken.

Advocates found some solace in the passage of two city-wide marijuana
measures. In San Francisco, officials were authorized to explore
establishment of a distribution program for medical marijuana; and in the
District of Columbia, voters approved a treatment-instead-of-jail measure
for pot possession.

Critics of the three tycoons, contending the citizen initiative process had
been hijacked, trumpeted the results as a victory for common people. "We
told them Ohio is not for sale," said the state's first lady, Hope Taft, a
leader of the campaign to defeat the initiative. On an unrelated ballot
issue, a wealthy backer did get his way.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, touted as a potential future California
gubernatorial candidate, spent $1 million of his own money to help pass an
initiative that would earmark a half-billion dollars annually for
after-school programs. Also in California, secession measures that would
have split Los Angeles into three entities -- the city, Hollywood and the
San Fernando Valley -- were defeated. Politicians will now move to pass
legislation that would ban future secession votes.

In other results:

* North Dakota rejected a measure pushed by drug reformers that would have
allowed defendants to tell a jury to disregard a law if they thought it was
unfair.

* Arkansas defeated a proposal to repeal the sales tax on food and medicine.

* Massachusetts rejected a measure to end the state's personal income tax.

* Nevada voters reinforced an existing ban on gay marriages.

* Oklahomans voted to ban cockfighting. The state had been one of three,
along with Louisiana and New Mexico, that still allowed it.

* In Florida, a measure limiting class size in public schools passed. At
the same time, the Democratic candidate for governor, Bill McBride, was
defeated in part for his support for the initiative and his inability to
explain how he would pay for it.

* Colorado and New Mexico voters rejected a proposed state holiday in honor
of labor leader Cesar Chavez.