Voters in Colorado and Maine may have the opportunity to decide whether the use of medical marijuana under a physician’s supervision should be legal under state law.
Medical marijuana proponents in both states recently filed ballot initiatives to put the issue to a public vote in 1998. Americans for Medical Rights (AMR), the California-based group that spearheaded the successful passage of Proposition 215 in California, is coordinating the two state campaigns.
“Next year is going to be a defining moment in the battle for legal access to medical marijuana,” NORML Director R. Keith Stroup, Esq. predicted. “Federal legislators are looking to the states to take the lead on this issue.”
Colorado’s reform effort seeks to amend the state’s constitution to allow anyone holding a state-issued identification card to legally possess up to an ounce of marijuana. Patients would also be able to cultivate marijuana for medical use with a physician’s recommendation. Cultivation limits are set at six plants, with no more than three plants producing usable marijuana at any one time.
A state health agency would keep a confidential registry of patients who possess valid doctor’s recommendations. Those who obtain marijuana for medical use would be prohibited from using it in public places, selling or distributing the drug, or “endangering the health and well-being” of other people by its use.
“The time [for medical marijuana] has come,” said initiative co-filer Martin Chilcutt of Coloradans for Medical Rights. “We can’t avoid it and put our heads in the sand and pretend the need isn’t there.”
A similar proposal filed in Maine would limit the use of marijuana to patients suffering from AIDS, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, seizures, or undergoing cancer chemotherapy. As in Colorado, the proposal allows patients to grow up to six marijuana plants.
“It’s pretty clear that this was written to ensure that [opponents] could not claim that this law would ‘open the door’ to other uses of marijuana,” said Attorney Ron Kreisman, who drafted the initiative.
“It’s been clear for years that there is broad deep support for permitting medical use of marijuana among Maine [citizens],” explained Dave Fratello, spokesman for AMR. Stephanie Hart, a former Congressional aide who is now coordinating the statewide effort, agrees.
“We know from everything we’ve heard that Maine people will come forward” to support the medical marijuana drive, she said.
Stroup sees parallels between Colorado and Maine, and anticipates both initiatives efforts to be successful in 1998. “In both instances, you have states where voters have shown strong support for the issue, but the Legislature has failed to convert the voters’ sentiment into law,” he said. “Proponents have no choice but to bypass the Legislature and go directly to the voters.”
Besides Colorado and Maine, grassroots petition drives are also taking place in Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, and the District of Columbia. Both Florida’s and Washington D.C.’s initiatives are modeled after California’s Proposition 215, while Alaska and Arkansas’ language propose broader drug-law reforms.
Americans for Medical Rights said that they may back additional state initiatives in 1998.
For more information, please contact either Keith Stroup of NORML at (202) 483-5500 or Dave Fratello of Americans for Medical Rights at (310) 394-2952.