State voters rejected a drug-law reform ballot initiative that contained provisions allowing physicians to recommend the use of marijuana as a medicine to seriously ill patients.
Initiative 685, the “Drug Medicalization and Prevention Act of 1997” received only 40 percent support from state voters Tuesday. The defeat came as a disappointment to reformers, but medical marijuana proponents said that public support for medical marijuana remains strong.
“The defeat of I-685 was not a defeat for medical marijuana,” NORML Director R. Keith Stroup, Esq. said, citing exit poll results indicating 46 percent of those opposed to the initiative would support a measure dealing only with medical marijuana. “It further supports our belief that a majority of Americans favor focused legislation allowing a patient to use marijuana medicinally under a physician’s supervision.”
Tacoma physician Rob Killian, who filed the initiative, told reporters that he felt I-685’s broad language regarding other drugs and prison reform may have turned off some voters who would have otherwise supported the measure. He said that he may file an initiative next year to deal strictly with medical marijuana.
In the meantime, state legislators Alex Deccio (R-Yakima) and Jeanne Kohl (D-Seattle) announced they will work to push the issue forward in the Legislature. Deccio, who chairs the Senate Health and Long Term Care Committee, said he will likely hold hearings on the issue, and Kohl announced that she hopes to co-sponsor legislation permitting the use of marijuana as a medicine.
“I’d like to focus only on marijuana and keep it [limited] to medical use,” Kohl said. “I think we’re farther ahead than we were a year ago, especially with public awareness of the issue.”
Kohl previously sponsored a medical marijuana appropriation bill in 1996 that secured $130,000 to conduct a state study into the benefits of marijuana as a medicine. That proposal remains delayed indefinitely while awaiting federal approval.
For more information, please contact either Paul Armentano or Keith Stroup of NORML at (202) 483-5500.