D.C. MARIJUANA PETITIONS FALL SHORT

The District's summer of disputed signatures spread to a new forum
yesterday as a local medical marijuana advocacy group found itself butting
heads with the same agency that voted last month to keep Mayor Anthony A.
Williams off the Democratic primary ballot when his nominating petitions
were found to be plagued with irregularities.

The D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics, though acknowledging the
possibility that its staff members made mistakes in examining the
signatures, told representatives from the Marijuana Policy Project that
they had failed to gather enough valid signatures to put the issue before
voters. The group has been working to place on the ballot an initiative
that would decriminalize medical use of marijuana.

For the marijuana initiative to make it onto the ballot, supporters are
required to submit 17,455 signatures -- representing 5 percent of the
city's registered voters. That total must include 5 percent of the voters
in five of the city's eight wards. Election board officials said the
marijuana group had fallen about 100 signatures short of meeting the
requirement in one of the five wards.

But Marijuana Policy Project Executive Director Robert Kampia said the
board had thrown out several hundred valid signatures for no reason. The
group says it may appeal the board's decision in court.