|
Washington
Initiative
Fails
at
Ballot:
No
one
said
this
was
going
to
be
easy
11/7/97
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 @ (202) 483-5500.
(The I-685 home page can be found at http://www.eventure.com/I685.)
-- END --
|
Issue #18, 11/7/97
Washington Initiative Fails at Ballot: No one said this was going to be easy | McWilliams Case Set Back: Judges "changes mind" on medical necessity defense | California Medical Marijuana Providers Conference: Groups sign on to principles and guidelines document | Patient Threatened with Arrest after Seeking Dialogue: Yuba County accused of violating Prop. 215 | South Carolina Supreme Court Upholds Eight Year Prison Sentence for Woman Whose Baby was Born with Drugs in System | Prohibition at Work: Mexican law enforcement officers once again involved in sometimes lethal criminal activities | Canadian Passports New Currency in Illegal Drug Market | Poll: British MP's Would Modify Cannabis Law -- split most evident within Labour Party | Five Former Cops Plead Guilty to Drug Trafficking | Whitman Wins, Needle Exchange Loses | Miss America Visits Needle Exchange Program | New MS Treatment Very Effective, But Very Expensive... Medical marijuana still illegal as alternative | World Bank Endorses Needle Exchange Funding | McCaffrey Calls Allegations Inappropriate | Irish Teens Top European Drug Users | Study Finds Not All Drug Users Are Losers | Narcs vs. Murphy Brown: DEA Chief criticizes fictional news anchor for medical marijuana use | Media Watch: Drug war issues in the news | Editorial: Are the drug warriors really fighting for this nation's youth?
|
This issue -- main page
This issue -- single-file printer version
Drug War Chronicle -- main page
Chronicle archives
|
PERMISSION to reprint or
redistribute any or all of the contents of Drug War Chronicle (formerly The Week Online with DRCNet is hereby
granted. We ask that any use of these materials include proper credit and,
where appropriate, a link to one or more of our web sites. If your
publication customarily pays for publication, DRCNet requests checks
payable to the organization. If your publication does not pay for
materials, you are free to use the materials gratis. In all cases, we
request notification for our records, including physical copies where
material has appeared in print. Contact: StoptheDrugWar.org: the Drug Reform Coordination Network,
P.O. Box 18402, Washington, DC 20036, (202) 293-8340 (voice), (202)
293-8344 (fax), e-mail [email protected]. Thank
you.
Articles of a purely
educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of the DRCNet
Foundation, unless otherwise noted.
|
