A campaign to legalize pot for medical use

By TOM FIEDLER
Herald Political Editor

Florida physicians would be allowed to prescribe marijuana in treating
such ailments as cancer, AIDS or glaucoma if a constitutional
amendment campaign opening today succeeds in getting on the 1998
ballot and winning voter approval.

Floridians for Medical Rights are expected to announce a statewide
petition drive at a news conference this morning at the Broward County
Sheriff's Office in Fort Lauderdale. The group claims backing from a
variety of mainstream medical and political groups, including the
Florida Medical Association, the Governor's Red Ribbon Commission on
AIDS, the Dade County Medical Association, the Libertarian Party of
Florida and the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, among
others.

The amendment would allow physicians to use marijuana in the treatment
of cancer, HIV, AIDS, anorexia, glaucoma, arthritis, chronic pain,
spasticity, migraine headaches or ``other specified medical condition
or illness.''

The coalition will have to gather at least 435,000 signatures from
registered voters to win a spot on next year's ballot.

If approved by voters, the ``Freedom to use Medicinal Marijuana''
amendment would be added to the state constitution's Bill of Rights.

``Our goal is to remove the threat of criminal prosecution from people
who are suffering from various afflictions,'' said Toni Leeman, the
initiative campaign's coordinator. ``The human side is being lost in
the war on drugs.''

Leeman, a paralegal for the ACLU, became interested in the medical
benefits of marijuana when a friend undergoing chemotherapy treatments
for cancer suffered severe weight loss. The friend's doctor urged the
patient to obtain marijuana illegally as a way of regaining her
appetite and tolerating the chemotherapy.

She said numerous medical studies have documented similarly beneficial
effects of marijuana for people with AIDS, who also have difficulty
holding on to their strength during treatment.

A Harvard Medical School survey found that 44 percent of oncologists
had recommended marijuana to patients undergoing chemotherapy, she
said.

And the federal government currently allows eight Americans, including
Hollywood resident Elvy Musikka, to legally obtain and use marijuana
as treatment for glaucoma, a debilitating eye disease.

Musikka will be involved in the initiative campaign, Leeman said,
along with others who have illegally used marijuana on the advice of
doctors. Miami Beach physician Mark LaPorta, treasurer of the Dade
County Medical Association, will be a cochairman of the campaign.

Beginning next week, Musikka and other volunteers will start a
yearlong, countybycounty swing to build interest in the initiative
and to collect signatures to get on the ballot.

``I'm confident that we'll be able to get the signatures because there
has already been so much interest in this,'' Leeman said. ``But what
we want to do more than get petitions is to educate people.''

The amendment is at least as restrictive as similar measures that won
the approval of voters in Arizona and California last fall.

Leeman said it was drawn to ensure that the marijuana could only be
used under the direct care of a physician, whose license could be
revoked if the prescription authority was abused.

Nevertheless, at least one North Florida sheriff signaled his
opposition to both the amendment and the appearance of petition
gatherers.

Sheriff Frank McKeithen of Gulf County, southwest of Tallahassee,
warned that he was ``fundamentally opposed to the legalization of
marijuana for medical use.''

``The potential for criminal abuse far outweighs the dubious evidence
of medical benefit,'' he wrote in a letter to the county's Board of
Commissioners alerting them to the petition drive.

But the issue has won widespread support among American voters despite
such warnings. In Arizona and California, medical marijuana laws won
overwhelmingly in referendums last year and nationwide surveys show
about four in five voters favor such legalization.